(AP) — A federal judge ordered immigration officials to release the president of Wisconsin’s largest mosque from detention Thursday, finding that Salah Sarsour has raised a “substantial” claim that he was being targeted for speaking out in favor of Palestinian rights.
Sarsour, a Palestinian-born legal permanent resident of the United States, was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on March 30. The government has claimed he is a foreign policy threat, but Sarsour’s attorneys say he was actually targeted for speaking out against Israel.
U.S. District Judge James Patrick Hanlon wrote in a decision Thursday that attorneys for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not provide enough evidence to refute Sarsour’s claims of retaliation for free speech, nor did they explain why Sarsour was suddenly considered a threat now after more than three decades of legal residency in the United States.”The mere invocation of foreign relations concerns does not automatically trump First Amendment rights,” wrote Hanlon, who was nominated by Trump in 2018. Hanlon ordered that Sarsour be released from the Indiana county jail where he was being held, and allowed to return to his Milwaukee home while his immigration case moves forward.
Sarsour was released a few hours after the ruling.
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