The president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, who some claim is a long-time Hamas supporter, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on Monday. It’s unclear what he’s being held for.
Federal agents reportedly followed him before nabbing him, the Islamic Society alleges:
The Islamic Society of Milwaukee said ICE agents followed Salah Sarsour on Monday as he left his home, surrounded his vehicle, and took him into custody.
The organization said Sarsour was taken to an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois before being transferred to a detention center in Indiana.
The Islamic Society of Milwaukee said Salah Sarsour has been a legal resident of the Milwaukee community for over 32 years, and is a lawful permanent resident, whose wife and all six children are citizens.
Salah Sarsour, a board member of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), has been detained by immigration authorities.
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 2, 2026
This occurs as AMP faces a major lawsuit alleging the organization is a successor to groups previously held liable for funding terrorism. pic.twitter.com/kjbF25juMb
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Even though there’s scant information thus far, Sarsour’s supporters wasted no time before shrieking about discrimination and Islamophobia. Wisconsin Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-04):
This is completely unacceptable. Salah Sarsour is a respected leader in the Milwaukee community, and his detention raises serious concerns about the continued targeting of lawful residents based on the color of their skin or their political beliefs.
— Rep. Gwen Moore (@RepGwenMoore) April 2, 2026
Moore was not alone in immediately assuming that ICE had racist, dark intentions:
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said in a statement that Sarsour's arrest "is an affront to everything Milwaukee stands for."
"Let's be clear about what happened here: Agents did not stumble upon Mr. Sarsour," said Crowley, who is running for governor. "They followed him and monitored him based on his profile and the community he leads. That is religious profiling and government surveillance of a faith community happening right here in Milwaukee, and this administration expects us to simply accept it."
Although the Society says that Sarsour has been a model citizen for decades in the U.S. and is not a supporter of terrorism, he does have a history, according to RAIR Foundation USA (Rise Align Ignite Reclaim), an organization that the media loves to claim is “extreme right-wing” and which warns about Islamic extremism.
Sarsour’s Hamas connections aren’t speculation: They are laid out in Israeli court records, U.S. FBI memos, and congressional testimony. In 1995, Sarsour was arrested and jailed for eight months in an Israeli prison for supporting the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas. While incarcerated, he became “close friends” with Adel Awadallah, the West Bank commander of Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. According to his own brother Jamil Sarsour (arrested in 1998 for funding Hamas), Salah helped plan attacks against Israel and used his Milwaukee furniture business to send money to Awadallah via checks.
A November 2001 FBI Action Memorandum explicitly listed Salah Sarsour (and brother Imad) as a Hamas fundraiser operating through the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) – the largest terror-financing case in U.S. history. HLF was later convicted in federal court of funneling millions to Hamas. Sarsour had previously worked with the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), a known Hamas propaganda and recruitment arm that provided “media, communications, and fundraising support” to HLF. Law enforcement documents show he raised money “in the name” of HLF for Hamas.
We will know soon enough if Sarsour was wrongfully detained and is 100 percent innocent, as the Islamic Society of Milwaukee claims, or if he's a danger, as RAIR alleges. Considering the reality that we do not know why ICE picked him up, however, it’s a little early — and histrionic — to be shrieking about Islamophobia, racism, and discrimination already.
Let’s wait and see what the facts actually are.
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