On April 6, almost a dozen ICE agents surrounded Muslim community leader Salah Sarsour in his car shortly after he left his Milwaukee home. They kidnapped him, first taking him to Chicago and then to a county jail in Indiana, where he remains held.
Salah was born in the Israeli-occupied West Bank of Palestine and has been a legal permanent resident of the U.S. for over 30 years. He has no criminal record in this country. He is a community leader, currently serving as president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee. His “crime” appears to be his unwavering support for the Palestinian people and all the oppressed.
Many in the community have come out in support of Salah, including Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, who called his arrest “an outrage.”
Writing for In These Times, Dr. Hatem Bazian, who knows Salah, said:
“Salah grew up in the occupied West Bank, where he endured the violence, torture and humiliation of Israeli occupation as a child. He came to this country, built a family, built a business, and built a community. He spent those thirty-two years as a living rebuttal to the lie that Palestinians are anything other than human beings deserving of dignity. His abduction is not about law enforcement. It is about silencing. It is part of the same pattern we have seen with Mahmoud Khalil, with Leqaa Kordia, with Mohsen Mahdawi — a deliberate campaign to use the machinery of U.S. immigration enforcement as a weapon against Palestinian and Muslim voices at the very moment when the world is watching a genocide unfold in Gaza.”
Salah Sarsour was profiled by an anonymously run Zionist website called Canary Mission, which was also involved in the slandering of Mahmoud Khalil and other Palestinian activists. As reported by CNN, on July 9, 2025, senior ICE official Peter Hatch told a federal court in Boston that more than 75% of the names of student protesters his agency was asked to look into came from Canary Mission. The admission exposed the political motivation behind these arrests: crushing dissent.
Struggle-La Lucha spoke with a family member of Salah:“Just look at his statement. He’s been locked up by ICE, but he barely talks about himself. The statement is all about the community in Wisconsin. It’s about standing with oppressed people in Lebanon and Palestine. He talks about the struggles of Black and Latin American people and standing together. This is an example for all of us!
“You know, when my husband passed away, he was there for us. He treated my children like they were his own children. He was always there for them when they needed him. That’s the kind of man he is.”
One of Salah’s nephews also told Struggle-La Lucha:
“He is a man of faith, integrity and resilience. Salah’s unjust imprisonment is nothing more than the extension of Israel’s oppressive regime to U.S. soil. This sets a terrifying precedent. His statement is evidence of his resilient character and faith.”
There are many linkages between U.S. police and Israel’s occupation forces. ICE has increasingly used Israeli spy technology, as reported by Turkey’s Anadolu Agency. Representatives from U.S. police departments regularly attend seminars and trainings with their Israeli counterparts; New York, Los Angeles and Memphis departments have come under scrutiny for these activities.
Having grown out of slave-catching patrols, U.S. police are an occupying force in Black, Brown and working-class communities. They are cut from the same cloth as Israeli police and military forces because they serve the same capitalist class. Israel could not exist for a day without billions in annual funding from Washington to protect Western capitalist interests in West Asia. Israel does much of Washington’s dirty work in the region. This is the relationship of a crime boss and a hit man.
Salah Sarsour is no criminal. Resisting occupation is not a crime.
Mailing address to send letters:
611 East Jackson St.
Brazil, Indiana 46834
LaunchGood link for legal defense fund:
bit.ly/freesalah
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