Last week, an immigration judge ruled Palestinian American activist Salah Sarsour legally deportable. While dropping the incendiary and false charges that Sarsour lied on his immigration paperwork and voted illegally, the judge, citing “extreme deference” to the Trump administration, found that Sarsour represents a threat to U.S. foreign policy efforts “to combat antisemitism around the world.”
Originating in McCarthyist repression, this aspect of immigration policy, also used against Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Madawi, was designed in the 1950s to allow the government to deport agents of foreign governments, not local organizers. The president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, Sarsour has long worked for justice in his homeland, often in coalition with local Jewish groups who have found in him a friend, not an antisemite.
Lawyers for Sarsour plan an appeal to the Bureau of Immigration. The judge in Sarsour’s case, Jayme Salinari, announced immediately after his finding that he would take a lush retirement package that requires federal scrutiny.
Sarsour will continue to pursue his case in federal court, arguing, like Khalil, that his arrest, detention, and possible deportation violate his civil rights. As a teenager, Sarsour was detained and tortured in Israeli jails, marking three periods of incarceration in his life. Undeterred, he vows to continue the fight, for his own liberation and that of Palestine.
ACTION ITEM: Support the struggle for justice for Sarsour by donating to the Salah Sarsour Justice Fund.
(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action. Emphasis original.)