On March 30, twelve Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicles descended on a Milwaukee neighborhood to arrest Salah Sarsour, a Palestinian American green card holder who has lived here for over thirty years. Since that day, Sarsour has been detained in Clay County Jail, an ICE-contracting prison in Brazil, Indiana.Sarsour has long advocated for justice in Palestine at local and national levels. Currently, he is president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee as well as a longtime organizer with American Muslims for Palestine. In a city with a diverse Muslim community, including the largest population of Rohingya immigrants in the United States, Sarsour is beloved for his embrace of new arrivals as well as his ongoing community and interfaith work. He is a father of six and a grandfather of nine; while in detention, he missed the birth of one grandchild.The kidnapping and detention of Salah Sarsour are reprisals for his advocacy for Palestine. The global outpouring of solidarity with Palestine against the ongoing Israeli genocide since October 7, 2023, has produced a dramatic expansion of repression against protest in the United States and Western Europe. The detention of advocates like Sarsour is part of this campaign.Prior to Sarsour’s arrest, Canary Mission, a shadowy website that purports to expose anti-Israel, “antisemitic” actors, identified Sarsour, without evidence, as “reportedly a Hamas activist and fundraised [sic] for terrorist organizations.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) charges against him echo Canary Mission. They reference his participation in “anti-Israel activities” when he was a teenager in the West Bank and allege that he somehow concealed this past on arrival to the United States.Before leaving his home in the West Bank, Sarsour spent two years in Israeli jails, enduring months of torture at age fifteen. Such treatment of children is commonplace under Israeli administrative detention; currently, Israel…
