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Immigration judge rules US can deport president of Wisconsin's largest mosque · GNN Daily Breaking News

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  Speaker 1: A federal immigration judge ruled that the United States government
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  Speaker 1: can deport Palestinian-born Sulla Sarsour, the long-serving president of Wisconsin's
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  Speaker 1: largest mosque, invoking a controversial Cold War-era statute that permits
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  Speaker 1: removals on foreign policy grounds. Chicago Immigration Court Judge Jamie
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  Speaker 1: Salinardi determined that federal authorities established sufficient grounds to deport
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  Speaker 1: the legal permanent resident. basing the order in part on
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  Speaker 1: executive determinations that Sarsour's public advocacy undermines American foreign policy initiatives. However,
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  Speaker 1: the court explicitly rejected alternative assertions by government attorneys alleging
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  Speaker 1: that the community leader had falsified information on his original
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  Speaker 1: permanent residency application, narrowing the legal foundation of the removal
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  Speaker 1: order strictly to national security and diplomatic provisions. The executive
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  Speaker 1: branch targeted Sarsour, who has served as president of the
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  Speaker 1: Islamic Society of Milwaukee and lived in the United States
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  Speaker 1: since 1993 by referencing statutory provisions within the Immigration and
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  Speaker 1: Nationality Act. Federal filings cited official memoranda from the State
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  Speaker 1: Department asserting that Sarsour's public speech and organizational activities run
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  Speaker 1: counter to federal foreign policy priorities aimed at combating anti-Semitism globally.
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  Speaker 1: Government attorneys additionally raised decades-old convictions handed down by Israeli
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  Speaker 1: military tribunals in the 1990s. Sarsour's legal team forcefully rejected
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  Speaker 1: those claims, emphasizing that their client has maintained a clean
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  Speaker 1: criminal record throughout his 33 years in the United States
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  Speaker 1: and noting that federal immigration agencies were fully aware of
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  Speaker 1: his overseas history when granting his green card decades ago.
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  Speaker 1: The deportation ruling marks a critical development in ongoing federal
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  Speaker 1: enforcement measures directed at prominent non-citizen figures engaged in regional
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  Speaker 1: political advocacy. Defense attorneys and civil liberties organizations condemned the
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  Speaker 1: court's reliance on foreign policy removal provisions, characterizing the enforcement
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  Speaker 1: action as an unconstitutional retaliation against protected First Amendment speech.
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  Speaker 1: Following his brief detention by federal immigration authorities earlier this year,
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  Speaker 1: a federal district judge previously ordered Sarsour's temporary release after
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  Speaker 1: finding substantial merit in his retaliation claims. With the immigration
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  Speaker 1: court now upholding removal authority, Sarsour's legal counsel confirmed plans
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  Speaker 1: to lodge an immediate appeal with the Board of Immigration
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  Speaker 1: Appeals and seek emergency relief in federal court to prevent
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  Speaker 1: deportation while appellate proceedings continue.