>> 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 30th when he was surrounded by
Ice agents, the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security, in a press release called Sarsour a
criminal and a terrorist, alleging crimes committed
in Israel more than 30 years ago prior to coming
to the U.S. and of which he denies. Secretary of State
Marco Rubio is reported to have said that Sarsour,
quote, poses an adverse consequence to foreign
policy considerations. Sarsour is outspoken about
the mistreatment of Palestinians in Gaza by
Israel. In the order granting the motion for his
release, a federal judge stated, quote, Mr. Sarsour
has raised a substantial First Amendment retaliation
claim which could render his detention unlawful.
Here to discuss the case is a member of Sarsour's legal
team. Sam Kohl, an attorney with the ACLU of Illinois
who is also a former immigration judge. Sam,
thanks for joining us. >> Thanks for having me.
>> You're familiar with the arguments raised by the
Trump administration against Salah Sarsour. The
secretary of state himself said that he posed an
adverse consequence to foreign policy
considerations. Were there grounds to arrest and
detain him? >> No. Absolutely not. Mr.
Sarsour has been a upstanding person in the
United States since he came here over 30 years ago. He
is a grandfather of nine US citizen kids and has had
absolutely no trouble in the United States. The only
reason he was arrested was because he's an outspoken
advocate for Palestinian human rights, and that's
why he's been targeted by this administration. And
that is absolutely not an appropriate and lawful
reason to arrest someone. >> So what were conditions
like for Mr. Sarsour in jail?
>> They're pretty bad. He lost 30 pounds during the
time that he was there. He's also he also has some
medical problems. He's a type two diabetic, and his
doctor required that he have daily glucose, blood
glucose monitoring. And he was getting tested once a
month. So that's that's not great. And that could
really pose some serious risks to his health.
>> Was there a chance he could have been deported?
>> So the case is ongoing. Right. So he so he has been
released from detention based on our motion in
front of a federal district court judge. So Mr. Sarsour
filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, asking
the federal judge to release him from from the
immigration detention. And the judge hasn't ruled on
that habeas petition quite yet. But he did grant an
interim release of Mr. Sarsour while the court
adjudicates the habeas petition by saying that
he's made a strong showing that he might prevail in in
the habeas petition. But that doesn't mean the
immigration case is over. So Mr. Sarsour is still
fighting deportation in immigration court, and
that's ongoing. >> Okay. You're a former
immigration judge yourself. You've said this case is
highly unusual. You've never seen anything like it.
How much of the case is outside the bounds of what
you'd normally see? >> 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. And 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. The first of all, the the primary
charge against him is, as you noted, that letter from
of Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying that. NewsHour.
Suarez 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 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 in the
executive Office for Immigration Review. It's
the 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 the immigration
court judges and specifically assigned to
this one management judge. I've never seen that happen.
>> So I gather you feel like you have a strong,
strong First Amendment case here that his rights, your
client's rights were violated. Can you explain
that? >> Absolutely. Mr. Sarsour,
as a longtime permanent resident of the United
States, has the same First Amendment rights to speak
and to engage in political activity and political
activism that that essentially you and I do as
citizens of the United States. And so what's
really happening is, is the government is, is targeting
him because they don't like his speech. And that is is
highly problematic. It is it violates the
Constitution, the First Amendment. And, and we're
very concerned to see this, this these charges against
him by the administration. >> So you mentioned this,
that this case is not over. You have hearings coming up.
How does this proceed? What happens next?
>> So there's another hearing coming up. The at
the end of July, July 22nd, in the immigration court,
where the government has the burden of proof. In
this case, they have to prove the charges that that
they have made against him. And and aside from the
charges, based on the Marco Rubio determination about
foreign policy, there are some other charges that
relate to things that have been decades and decades
ago, things the government has known about for a very
long time. And, you know, we are we will fight these
charges. We we are he has very good defenses, and we
are fighting them in immigration court. And if
we lose in immigration court, we will continue our
fight all the way up as far as it takes, because
everyone knows what's going on here. It's not about
anything that happened decades ago. It's about
what he's doing now, his speech. And that's why he's
being that's why he's being targeted.
>> All right. We'll be >> All right. We'll be