Judge rules Sarsour can be deported, rejects fraud claim

An immigration judge ruled Wednesday that the U.S. can deport Salah Sarsour, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, on foreign-policy grounds, while rejecting the government’s allegation that he lied on his green-card application. Sarsour said he intends to appeal, leaving both the removal decision and the destination unresolved. Judge Jayme Salinardi of the Chicago Immigration Court found Sarsour removable under an immigration provision invoked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a June 2025 memo. Government attorneys argued that convictions stemming from incidents in Israel made Sarsour a national-security threat. Salinardi accepted the government’s foreign-policy basis for removal but dismissed its claim that Sarsour had lied to immigration authorities. Sarsour, who was born in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has lived in the United States since 1993 and has no U.S. criminal record, according to the reports. He leads Wisconsin’s largest mosque and is an advocate for Palestinian rights. He was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Milwaukee in March; a federal judge ordered him released from custody in June.