After 80 days in federal custody
Salah Sarsour
a green card holder and
president of the
Islamic Society of Milwaukee
was released from
a facility in Indiana.
Sarsour was arrested in a
targeted operation on March 30
when he was surrounded
by ICE agents.
I was an immigration judge
in the Chicago Immigration Court
for nine years
and I handled, actually
a detained docket.
That's a docket of individuals
who are in immigration custody
so very similar to the situation
that Mr. Sarsour was in.
Mr. Sarsour's case is, in fact
in the Chicago Immigration Court
and I can tell you for one
I have never seen anything
like this at all.
First of all
that the primary charge
against him is, as you noted
that letter from
Secretary of State Marco Rubio
saying that Mr. Sarsour's
really, lawful activity
in the United States
poses a foreign policy risk
to the United States
now that that is highly unusual
and highly legally dubious.
But the other thing
that is extraordinary about
this case is
although the case is assigned
to the Chicago Immigration Court
the judge that was assigned
to hear the case is not a
Chicago Immigration Court judge.
It's actually a very
senior-level management judge
in the Executive Office
for Immigration Review.
It's an
acting regional deputy chief
immigration judge.
It's essentially the
second-in-command of all
the judges in the
entire immigration court system.
So that case was plucked out of
other immigration court judges
and specifically assigned to
this one management judge.
I've never seen that happen.