An immigration judge ruled the Trump administration can deport the president of Wisconsin’s largest mosque on national security and foreign-policy grounds, a decision he vows to fight on free-speech claims.

Chicago Immigration Court Judge Jayme Salinardi found Salah Sarsour removable after the government argued his presence posed serious risks to U.S. interests. The ruling hands federal authorities a clear path to remove the longtime Milwaukee Islamic leader once appeals run out.

Fox News reported the Wednesday decision allows deportation of the Jordanian-born permanent resident who leads the Islamic Society of Milwaukee. DHS welcomed the outcome and said the judge sustained multiple grounds of removability.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio set the case in motion in June 2025. He invoked federal immigration law and determined Sarsour’s continued presence could carry potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.

That determination tracked a broader enforcement push under President Trump. Immigration judges have already denied hundreds of thousands of asylum claims in a compressed window, outpacing years of prior work combined.

ICE arrested Sarsour in a Milwaukee operation

ICE agents, working with the U.S. Marshals Service, arrested Sarsour in a targeted Milwaukee operation in March. DHS described him as a criminal illegal alien from Jordan suspected of funding terror organizations and lying on immigration forms.

Authorities held him in an Indiana county jail. A photo caption shows his release on June 18, 2026. Court documents still list him as a lawful permanent resident, creating a clash with the DHS “illegal alien” label that the agency has not publicly resolved in the reporting.

Government lawyers pointed to decades-old convictions in Israel. Those included throwing rocks at Israeli military personnel and attempting to procure weapons. They also claimed a Molotov cocktail conviction; Sarsour’s lawyer said he was accused but never convicted on that charge.

A 2001 FBI memorandum summarized allegations from Sarsour’s brother, Jamil. The memo said Salah had raised money for the Holy Land Foundation on behalf of Hamas. Federal authorities later shuttered that foundation over terror ties.

Those records sit at the center of the national-security case. Just the News noted the government also cited green-card issues alongside the Israeli convictions when it pressed for removal.

DHS calls him a public safety threat

A DHS spokesperson said 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.”

The same spokesperson tied the case to the administration’s bottom line: “Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, if you break the law, you will face the consequences. Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.,” adding that “illegal aliens receive due process.”

That message matches the wider posture that has already produced concrete removals. ICE recently sent its first deportation flight to Haiti after temporary protected status ended, showing the machinery is moving.

Reuters reported DHS welcomed Salinardi’s decision and stated the judge sustained multiple grounds of removability under the Immigration and Nationality Act. The Cold War-era authority lets the government act when a foreign national’s presence threatens security or foreign policy.

Sarsour and his lawyer reject the threat label

Patrick Taurel, the lawyer representing Sarsour, rejected the public-safety framing in blunt terms.

"If a lawful resident of the United States for over 30 years with zero arrests or convictions in this country, a family man and the father of 6 U.S. citizen kids, the elected president of his mosque, and an advocate for interfaith dialogue is a ‘public safety threat,’ as DHS claims, those words cease to have any meaning at all,"

Sarsour has lived in the United States since 1993. He is president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and an outspoken advocate on Palestine. He and his lawyers say the case targets his speech and activism around the Israel-Gaza conflict, not any current crime.

Jewish Insider earlier reported a Facebook post in which Sarsour asked God to “give Gaza people victory.” In a deposition he acknowledged that additional language in the post could be read as asking God to punish those who wished harm on Gaza.

After the ruling, Sarsour said he will keep fighting. “I will continue fighting to defend the right to free speech and to stay in the country I have called home for more than three decades,” he stated.

AP News reported he called the decision deeply disappointing and warned that deportation to the West Bank “means the end of my life.” He also told reporters he will not stop standing up for justice in Palestine.

A prior order had directed ICE to free him in June amid a substantial free-speech claim after he criticized Israel. The latest ruling reverses that momentum and restores the government’s removal authority while appeals proceed.

Appeals will decide how fast removal moves

Sarsour cannot be deported until he exhausts legal avenues. He has pledged to appeal. The case now sits inside a larger pattern of stepped-up enforcement that reaches well beyond any single mosque leader.

The Supreme Court has already cleared the way for third-country deportations to restart, giving the administration more tools when home-country returns stall.

Similar pressure is landing on other long-term residents. A Pennsylvania pastor now faces removal to Haiti despite a pending green-card process, after a traffic stop triggered the case.

Banks have felt the shift too. Trump-era enforcement has pushed illegal immigrants out of U.S. financial systems as account holders reassess their exposure.

For Sarsour, the core fight remains the national-security finding itself. The government says old convictions, fundraising allegations, and foreign-policy risk justify removal. He says three decades of lawful residence, six U.S.-citizen children, and zero American criminal record make the “threat” label empty.

Judge Salinardi sided with the government. The next round belongs to the appeals courts. Until those finish, Sarsour stays in the country he has called home since the early 1990s, under a removal order that the Trump administration now holds as a major win.

When the law draws a hard line on national security, mosque titles and advocacy resumes do not erase the record the government put before the judge.