Ten Muslim civil rights organizations have released a joint letter condemning the arrest of Salah Sarsour, a Palestinian American community leader in Wisconsin.
Sarsour, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and pro-Palestinian activist, was reportedly driving on March 30 when he was pulled over by 10 federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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The joint letter said Sarsour was transferred to a detention center in Illinois and then to Indiana, where his family is “rushing to locate him.”
According to the letter, he is a lawful permanent resident and has lived in the United States for 32 years, and his wife and children are all U.S. citizens. Sarsour has been held in an immigration detention facility since his arrest.
“It must be made clear that Mr. Salah is being targeted based on his Palestinian and Muslim background,” the letter published Thursday said.
The bill was co-signed by organizations including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Law Foundation of America, and the Council of American Islamic Organizations.
The groups noted that under President Donald Trump, many immigrant activists, academics, and international students have been targeted for deportation for their pro-Palestinian solidarity.
“His detention reflects a worrying trend we have seen with Mahmoud Khalil, Requa Cordia, Mohsen Mahdawi, and other voices critical of Israeli repression,” the group wrote.
“This administration is weaponizing the U.S. judicial system to advance its interests while the foreign state of Israel commits genocide in Gaza.”
These groups have launched an online campaign calling for a legal defense for Sarsour. As of Thursday afternoon, more than $35,500 had been raised.
The Trump administration has not yet issued a statement regarding Sarsour’s arrest, but it has taken a tough stance against pro-Palestinian activities.
When Trump ran for reelection in 2024, he promised to crack down on demonstrators denouncing Israel’s human rights violations during its genocidal war in Gaza.
In a May 2024 statement obtained by The Washington Post, President Trump reportedly called the protests a “radical revolution” and said if elected he would “take the movement back 25 or 30 years.”
Within months of taking office in January 2025, Trump took action.
Starting in March 2025, the administration has moved to strip hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding from universities that have faced on-campus protests over anti-Semitic claims.
Federal authorities also arrested legal permanent residents such as Palestinian student leader Mahmoud Khalil and stripped them of their green cards.
Turkiye academic Rumeisa Ozturk’s student visa was revoked after she co-signed a pro-Palestinian opinion piece in her school’s student newspaper.
The arrest and subsequent swift deportation efforts of activists and academics drew widespread condemnation as a violation of First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and protest.
Wisconsin officials have been among the leaders in condemning Sarsour’s arrest as the latest in a series of efforts to suppress free speech. Two local councilors, Jocasta Zamarripa and Alex Bower, called the situation a “nightmare”.
“This is the unlawful detention of a longtime U.S. permanent resident, as Mr. Sarsore is a Milwaukeean who is legally present in our community,” the pair said in a joint statement Thursday.
“The unacceptable activities of ICE, especially the unlawful detaining of citizens without due process, must immediately stop. It is outrageous that federal ICE agents would come into our community and unlawfully detain a grandfather, a faith leader, and a Wisconsinite!”
Meanwhile, state Sen. Chris Larson emphasized that the federal government has not yet publicly provided a reason for Sarsour’s arrest.
“We have already seen many Islamic activists unfairly and unlawfully targeted by the Trump administration for their beliefs and speech,” Larson wrote.
“These unconstitutional attacks on our freedoms should alarm us all. When individuals and groups are targeted by the government for their speech, all of our freedoms are threatened.”
