{"id":561342,"date":"2026-04-03T02:27:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T02:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/561342\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T02:27:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T02:27:18","slug":"president-of-wisconsins-largest-mosque-detained-by-us-immigration-agents-wisconsin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/561342\/","title":{"rendered":"President of Wisconsin\u2019s largest mosque detained by US immigration agents | Wisconsin"},"content":{"rendered":"

The president of Wisconsin<\/a>\u2019s largest mosque was detained by federal immigration agents, drawing accusations from local officials and religious leaders that the arrest was motivated by his statements against Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Salah Sarsour, a Palestinian-born legal permanent resident of the United States, was taken into custody by nearly a dozen US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)<\/a> agents on Monday in Milwaukee after he left his home, according to the Islamic Society of Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

Supporters called for his immediate release on Thursday and his attorneys said he was detained on the grounds that he is a foreign policy threat. His attorneys say the claims have no merit.<\/p>\n

Instead, they believe Sarsour, 53, was targeted for speaking out against Israel<\/a> and for a conviction as a minor by Israeli military courts, which have faced scrutiny over allegations of limited due process and high conviction rates of Palestinians. Israel rejects those claims. The offenses included allegedly throwing rocks at Israeli officers, according to attorney Munjed Ahmad.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur government should not be doing the bidding of a foreign government,\u201d Ahmad said of Israel. \u201cThere\u2019s no question in my mind is that this is to stifle the discourse on the Palestinian narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorneys said Sarsour, born in the Israeli-occupied West Bank<\/a>, has no criminal record in the US.<\/p>\n

Sarsour\u2019s attorneys have likened the case to that of Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University activist who faces deportation because the federal government said he was a foreign policy threat.<\/p>\n

An email message left on Thursday for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security was not immediately returned.<\/p>\n

Sarsour has been the president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, the largest Islamic organization in the state, for five years. His attorneys say he\u2019s held a green card for years and lived in the Milwaukee area. His wife and four adult children are US citizens.<\/p>\n

His arrest prompted outcry from top elected officials, including Milwaukee\u2019s mayor, Cavalier Johnson, who called it \u201can outrage\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a legal permanent resident. There is no substantive evidence he has done anything wrong,\u201d Johnson said in a post on X. \u201cThis is another example of overreach and harm from the U.S. Immigration authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarsour is being held at county jail outside Indianapolis. His attorneys have filed a petition seeking his release.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is ready to fight tooth and nail to make sure that he\u2019s not drug through the mud,\u201d Ahmad said. \u201cHe wants to stay in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The president of Wisconsin\u2019s largest mosque was detained by federal immigration agents, drawing accusations from local officials and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-561342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}