ISM Reports ICE Agents Detained Sarsour While Leaving His Home on Monday
Milwaukee, WI – On Monday, according to the Islamic Society of Milwaukee (ISM), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers surrounded and detained ISM President Salah Sarsour while he was leaving his home. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Sarsour does not appear to have any criminal record whatsoever.
Sarsour is a thirty two year resident of Milwaukee and a permanent resident of the United States. Sarsour is both Palestinian and Muslim, a respected leader in his community, and an outspoken advocate for Palestinian liberation – the federal government has given no reason for his detention by ICE.
Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-19) released the following statement:
“ICE has once again attacked a beloved community member, presumably for criticizing United States foreign policy, being Palestinian, and being Muslim. Salah Sarsour is the President of the largest mosque in Wisconsin. He has no criminal record. He has lived in Milwaukee for over thirty years, with deep connections to movements and organizations around the state and the country.
On Monday, though, masked ICE agents kidnapped Salah while he was leaving his home. The federal government has given no valid reason for this act, because there is none.
We should retain and celebrate the right of all people to criticize our government, no matter how unpleasant people in power find it. Instead, Sarsour now joins Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk as Muslim-Americans violently detained by the federal government as retaliation for resisting Trump and Netanyahu.
Until free expression and free speech are protected, not treated as a privilege of the Trump Administration’s loudest supporters, this openly fascist government should be neither trusted nor obeyed. We must abolish ICE and hold those responsible for these repeated acts of state violence accountable.”
