Salah Sarsour, president of Wisconsin's largest mosque, walked free last month after more than 80 days in federal immigration custody, but the experience left scars he compares to his teenage imprisonment in Israeli military jails nearly four decades ago.
"It all brought back old memories of things that happened to me when I was tried in Palestine," Sarsour said in his first public interview since his release. "The humiliation, the treatment by guards, the way they talk to people, the way they try to put people down." He lost more than 30 pounds during his detention.
On March 30, federal agents surrounded Sarsour as he traveled to visit his elderly mother. At least 10 unmarked vehicles carrying armed agents in civilian clothes converged on him, he said, and he was transported first to a detention center near Chicago, then to a facility miles away in Indiana.
A federal judge released him after finding he had likely been detained in retaliation for his advocacy on behalf of Palestinians, a determination the judge said would render the detention unlawful. Yet the Trump administration continues to pursue his deportation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally signed off on a memo last year labeling Sarsour deportable, citing concerns that "his actions undermine US foreign policy to combat antisemitism around the world."
The Department of Homeland Security claimed Sarsour was "suspected of funding terror organizations and lying on immigration forms." He denies both allegations. DHS also cited criminal convictions in Israel, referencing decades-old charges from when Sarsour was arrested as a teenager during the first intifada in 1989.
Sarsour describes that 1989 arrest as a coercive ordeal. He says Israeli soldiers detained him, and he was forced under torture and threat of rape to sign documents in Hebrew he did not understand. He spent two years in an Israeli prison. When he returned to Palestine in 1995, Israeli authorities detained him again for nearly three months.
Now 53, Sarsour has lived in the United States since 1993 as a permanent resident. He owns several businesses, is a father of six US citizens, and a grandfather of nine with another grandchild on the way. He moved to America seeking a place where he could "live freely," he said.
Inside the detention facility, conditions were harsh. Sarsour, who is diabetic, said he was denied the daily blood sugar checks he required. The food was so unidentifiable that "you don't know what you're eating sometimes." He slept on a 2-inch mattress under a thin blanket in a freezing room shared with dozens of other men. When he requested to join other Muslim men for Friday prayers and Eid celebrations, he was denied.
Sarsour serves as a board member of American Muslims for Palestine, a national advocacy group that Trump administration officials have accused of conflicting with US foreign policy interests. His detention drew widespread condemnation from civil rights organizations, community members, and legislators, with protesters gathering outside the detention center.
Samuel Cole, a former immigration judge and senior attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois representing Sarsour, said the case echoes detentions of others targeted for pro-Palestinian activism. Cole stressed the case is particularly troubling because Sarsour has legally resided in the United States for decades and the government has known about his Israeli record since at least 2000, when it evaluated his arrests while assessing his eligibility for naturalization.
"They use the immigration court as a tool for their immigration enforcement policies," Cole said.
Sarsour has no criminal record in the United States. When agents initially detained him, he thought they had confused him with someone else. He refused to sign deportation paperwork. Only as days stretched into weeks did he realize he had been targeted because of his activism.
"That really shocked me to be honest," he said.
A month after his release, Sarsour said he remains haunted by the experience and doesn't feel like the same person. He faces a lengthy court battle ahead, with a substantive hearing scheduled in Chicago. But he remains defiant about his mission.
"We have a mission: let's continue to make our voice clear, to protect the first amendment, to support justice," he said. "I'll continue with that message whether I'm inside or outside."
Sarsour believes his detention was a calculated attempt by the Trump administration to silence voices calling for Palestinian rights. "They thought that by arresting me they would scare people fighting for justice for Palestinians, but it's the opposite," he said.
Author James Rodriguez: "The government's playbook of using immigration enforcement against activists for political ends is chilling, and Sarsour's case shows how courts may be the only check on this kind of retaliation."
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