Milwaukee Islamic Society president detained by ICE
By Nick Bohr
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MILWAUKEE (WISN) — Salah Sarsour, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, prompting widespread calls for his release from elected officials and community members.
Sarsour, a Palestinian immigrant and businessman who has lived in the Milwaukee area for decades, is described by supporters as a legal U.S. resident. Family said Thursday he has been a permanent resident of the U.S. for more than 30 years and has sent all six of his children, who are U.S. citizens, through college.
“He was targeted for one thing. He dared to stand up to the Israeli government,” said Othman Atta, the executive director of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, at a news conference he called Thursday afternoon.
“He is a person that we need to celebrate. People like him are people that we need to celebrate in our community, raise high, appreciate everything they’ve accomplished in their lives, not kidnapped in broad daylight,” said his son Kareem Sarsour.
The Muslim Legal Fund of America is representing Sarsour in removal proceedings expected to be held in Chicago. In a statement, they said his car was pulled over Monday and “more than 10 federal agents surrounded Sarsour in Milwaukee before he was taken into custody by the Department of Homeland Security.”
He has since been moved to a holding facility in Indiana.
His legal team claims he has been detained “because the government appears to be using the immigration system to target individuals for protected speech related to Palestine and Palestinians.”
Sarsour, who owns three furniture stores in the Milwaukee area, was interviewed in 2012 when a five-alarm fire struck the family business at 13th and Vliet streets.
“It’s not only my establishment, it’s the whole neighborhood. We’ve been living here 30 years, we’re part of this community, so I was worried not only about my buildings, I was worried about people and everyone around,” he said at the time.
Now, it’s everyone around him worried about Sarsour.
Late Thursday evening, Homeland Security released a statement saying Sarsour is “suspected of funding terror organizations and lying on immigration forms.”
They allege he is “a terrorist convicted for throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes of Israeli armed forces.”
That would date to before he first came to the U.S. in the 1980s. They also released a photo of Sarsour, presumably taken in the last few days.
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