Defense claims US effort to deport Palestinian mosque head based on forced confession in Israel

US says Salah Sarsour was convicted decades ago of throwing firebombs, lied on immigration form; defense lawyers charge conviction result of torture, does not stand up to scrutiny

CHICAGO, Illinois — Israeli authorities coerced the leader of Wisconsin’s largest mosque into confessing to crimes but never succeeded in tying him to a terrorist organization, his former attorney testified Tuesday in a US immigration court, where the Palestinian man is fighting a Trump administration effort to deport him.

Salah Sarsour, a legal permanent resident of the United States, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at his Milwaukee home in late March. A judge released him from ICE detention in June, finding that the government had not sufficiently laid out why it was trying to expel him now after allowing him to live in the US for decades.

The Department of Homeland Security says it wants to deport Sarsour on the grounds that he is a foreign policy threat, based on his convictions in Israel in the 1980s and ’90s. It accuses Sarsour of lying on his immigration forms and alleges that he was “suspected of funding terror organizations.”

Noting his past conviction, DHS says he was previously “convicted for throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes of Israeli armed forces.”

Sarsour, a West Bank-born Palestinian who has no criminal record in the US, has said he is being punished for speaking out against Israel.

It was Sarsour’s third appearance in Chicago immigration court since his release from detention. One of his attorneys, Patrick Taurel, presented a witness Tuesday to underscore his argument that the Israeli convictions do not stand up to scrutiny.

Jawad Boulos, who was Sarsour’s lawyer when he was charged in Israel decades ago, testified that Sarsour was allegedly tortured in Israeli custody and coerced into making confessions. Boulos also said his former client was convicted of attempting to possess a weapon, but not of any charge tying him to a terrorist organization.

Boulos told the court Sarsour was tortured and that he accepted a plea deal in the 1990’s because fighting the charge could lead to a longer sentence behind bars. Sarsour moved to the US in 1993.

On the first day of the hearing, July 22, Salah Sarsour’s brother, Mohammad Sarsour, testified that his brother had appeared gaunt and dirty and complained of pain during his detention in Israeli jail.

Sarsour will appear remotely for his next hearing on September 14. Taurel said his client will not testify.

Sarsour is among several people who have been arrested in the US and threatened with deportation after speaking out in favor of Palestinians since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023.

The war broke out on October 7, 2023, after Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern Israel, murdered some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages.

Times of Israel staff and Reuters contributed to this report.