The president of Wisconsin’s largest mosque must be immediately released from detention as his immigration case moves forward, a federal judge ordered Thursday.
Salah Sarsour, who has been in custody in Indiana for more than two months, will be released on personal recognizance because of “extraordinary circumstances,” wrote Judge James Patrick Hanlon, an appointee of President Donald Trump in the southern district of Indiana.
That includes concerns over Sarsour’s health as well as the possibility, raised by his attorneys, that he was targeted for immigration action on the basis of his pro-Palestinian advocacy.
Hanlon wrote that Sarsour, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, must be returned to Wisconsin while his broader habeas petition moves through federal court and his immigration case moves through immigration court. In the habeas petition, Sarsour alleges that his detention is unlawful.
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“The Court does not decide the ultimate outcome of Mr. Sarsour’s First Amendment habeas claim or the merits of the charges of removability against him,” Hanlon wrote. “The Court only concludes, on the present record, that Mr. Sarsour has raised a ‘substantial’ First Amendment retaliation claim, which could render his detention unlawful.”
Lawyers for the government argued that, if Sarsour were to be released, it should be on cash bail and with an ankle monitor. Hanlon determined that “(s)uch conditions are not necessary here.”
“Sarsour has no history of non-compliance and is well established in the Milwaukee community,” Hanlon wrote. His “entire family lives in the United States and he has not traveled outside the United States since 1998.”
Sarsour, who has lived in the United States for more than 30 years, was arrested on March 30 and held in the Clay County Jail in Indiana.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security accused Sarsour of lying on his immigration forms after he immigrated from Ramallah in Palestinian territory. In a statement, DHS called Sarsour a “terrorist” who had thrown Molotov cocktails at Israeli military members and lied about it on his green card application.
His lawyers argue that Sarsour is being targeted for protected speech, including being a leader in Palestinian activism in recent years. Sarsour’s supporters acknowledge that he was convicted on those charges as a teenager growing up in the West Bank, but they argue that the details were fabricated by the Israeli government.
In his motion for release, Hanlon said those long-ago charges do not justify the government’s claim that Sarsour is now a risk to American safety. The government has “known about those charges for decades yet took no action to detain” Sarsour earlier, Hanlon wrote.
“Given Mr. Sarsour’s decades of living a law-abiding life in the United States and the long passage of time between his prior convictions, the Court finds Mr. Sarsour does not present a danger should he be released,” Hanlon wrote.
In a statement, Salah’s legal team said they are “ecstatic” about the decision.
“We will continue to fight the hyperbolic and ridiculous claims against Mr. Sarsour in court,” the statement reads. “But this is a day both to celebrate a family being reunited. It is also a sober reminder that, if the government can do this to Mr. Sarsour, then no one is safe from being punished for their speech.”
This story was originally published by WPR.
