The government failed to meet its burden of proof that Sarsour is deportable

Monday, September 14, 2026 — Chicago, Illinois — Today, Salah Sarsour, the Palestinian American community leader from Wisconsin who was unjustly taken into ICE custody in March of this year, sat in on his last immigration hearing in which the government sought and failed to establish grounds for his removal. After an unusually lengthy four days of hearings featuring seven witnesses, Sarsour’s counsel argued that the government had failed to meet its burden of proof on the claims against Sarsour which have been dug up after 30 years of legal U.S. residency and a clean record in this country.

“We should not be here,” said Patrick Taurel, Sarsour’s lead immigration attorney of Grossman Young & Hammond. “Mr. Sarsour should not be facing such an arduous and dehumanizing fight to remain with his family. He’s a leader of his community. He has never been charged with, let alone convicted of, a crime in the United States. ICE is seeking to deport him on the basis of his pro-Palestine speech. The other charges we’ve been fighting about in court are pretextual, trumped up, and do not withstand scrutiny. I don’t know how the immigration judge will rule but I know that Mr. Sarsour will keep fighting, with the support of his community behind him, because keeping him here is about protecting everyone’s constitutional right to free expression.”

Salah is a father, grandfather, and national grassroots leader in advocacy for Palestinian rights, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has been a legal U.S. resident for 32 years. On March 30th of this year, he was surrounded by roughly a dozen ICE officers and taken at gunpoint as Secretary of State Marco Rubio had named Sarsour among other Palestinian activists he sought to deport due to their advocacy for Palestinian rights. 

The government has sought to bolster the case for Sarsour’s removability for free speech by bringing forward tenuous allegations against Sarsour within Israeli military courts decades ago. However, a federal judge affirmed that the government had “been aware of charges against Mr. Sarsour for 25 years,” and had disregarded them at least four times in 2000, 2008, 2010, and 2019 — in part because Sarsour was tortured in that Israeli military court system, which is known for extracting false confessions. 

This final hearing provided closing arguments and a cross-examination of Jawad Boulos, who represented Salah Sarsour in Israeli Military Court in 1988 and 1994 and who testified about the severe torture and systemic injustice Sarsour faced. Boulous noted that Sarsour was coerced into confessing to the offenses the US government is now emphasizing as partial grounds for his removal. He also showed that the Israeli proceedings never established a connection between Sarsour and any Palestinian political factions. 

Sarsour awaits Judge Jayme Salinardi’s decision by September 30th at 8:30AM CT, when there will be a status hearing. Judge Salindardi sits within an immigration court which falls squarely under the purview of the executive branch. As the number two judge within the immigration system overall, he was specially designated for this case despite typical procedures that would have assigned a judge based in the Chicago Immigration Court. Notably, removal proceedings in immigration court have different standards of evidence than federal courts, and over 100 immigration court judges have been fired by the Trump Administration when they fail to acquiesce to the administration’s agenda. The legal team has noted the risk of political pressure in this decision as a result. 

For more information on the previous hearings, see this fact sheet.