An immigration judge has ruled that the U.S. government can deport the leader of Wisconsin’s largest mosque on national security grounds based on his pro-Palestinian advocacy and past convictions in Israel.
On Wednesday, Judge Jayme Salinardi determined that Islamic Society of Milwaukee President Salah Sarsour, 53, can be removed from the United States under an immigration provision invoked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio last year.
While his ruling didn’t favor the mosque leader, Judge Salinardi discarded the federal government’s allegation that Sarsour lied to immigration authorities on his green card application when he entered the U.S. in 1993.
The Trump administration deemed him a national security threat, though he has no criminal record in the U.S. over the past 33 years.
Sarsour was once imprisoned in Israel in 1988 after he confessed to throwing a Molotov cocktail and stones at Israeli military personnel. Seven years later, he was convicted of attempting to possess weapons. Sarsour maintains his innocence, and his lawyers argue he was tortured into confessing to both crimes.
Sarsour, who was born in the West Bank, said deportation to the Palestinian territory would be the “end of my life” because, in his view, he would be tortured by Israeli authorities there. Sarsour would need to demonstrate on appeal that he could be tortured again if he returned to the West Bank upon deportation, according to one of his lawyers.
Defense attorney Patrick Taurel said his client should be deported to Israel or the Palestinian territories rather than Jordan, which is listed as a possible destination on the order of removal. Sarsour has no connection to Jordan, but he was instructed by immigration officers to list it as his home country because the U.S. does not recognize Palestine as an independent state.
The judge left that issue to be addressed on appeal. Salinardi, who is retiring, said Judge Craig Defoe will start presiding over the case.
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Sarsour revealed he plans to appeal the “deeply disappointing” ruling. A notice of appeal is due within 30 days of Wednesday’s ruling.
“I will continue fighting to defend the right to free speech and to stay in the country I have called home for more than three decades,” Sarsour said after the decision.