An immigration judge ruled Wednesday that federal authorities can deport the leader of Wisconsin’s largest mosque on national security grounds.Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked federal immigration law in June 2025 to determine that Salah Sarsour, the president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, could be deported because his presence in the United States could have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.Government lawyers cited Sarsour’s decades-old convictions in Israel, including for throwing rocks at Israeli military personnel and attempting to procure weapons, in arguing that he posed a national security threat.Government lawyers also claimed he had been convicted of throwing a Molotov cocktail at IDF personnel, though Sarsour’s lawyer rebuffed that allegation by stating that, though he was accused of doing so, he was never convicted.JUDGE ORDERS ICE TO FREE WISCONSIN MOSQUE LEADER OVER 'SUBSTANTIAL' FREE SPEECH CLAIM AFTER CRITICIZING ISRAELIslamic Society of Milwaukee President Salah Sarsour smiles, Thursday, June 18, 2026, shortly after his release from a county jail in Indiana, where he was detained after his arrest by U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in March.(Yaseen Najeeb via AP)A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Fox News Digital that Rubio had "reasonable grounds to believe Sarsour’s presence would have adverse foreign policy consequences for the U.S., and he has engaged in terrorist activity or supported a terrorist organization."A 2001 FBI memorandum summarized allegations from Sarsour’s brother, Jamil, that he had been involved in fundraising for the Holy Land Foundation, an organization shuttered by the federal government for terror ties, on behalf of Hamas.
Jewish Insider, meanwhile, reported that Sarsour wrote a Facebook post asking God to "give Gaza people victory," while acknowledging in a deposition that additional language in the post could be translated as asking God to punish ...