An American immigration judge allows the deportation of Palestinian-American Salah Sarsour despite his lack of a criminal record in the United States

An immigration court judge ruled that the US government can deport Palestinian-American Salah Sarsour, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, the largest mosque in Wisconsin, and a permanent resident, under a law dating back to the Cold War era, according to Reuters.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Sarsour, who grew up in the West Bank, in late March and released him in mid-June, after a federal judge said he filed a free speech counterclaim that would make his detention illegal.

Late Tuesday, Chicago Immigration Court Judge Jaime Salinardi upheld the government's argument that Sarsour poses a security and foreign policy threat under the Cold War-era Immigration and Nationality Act, while rejecting the government's claim that he lied when he applied for a green card.

The Department of Homeland Security welcomed the ruling, saying the judge “upheld multiple grounds for deportation.”

Sarsour said that his legal team would appeal the ruling, which he described as “deeply disappointing.”

He added in a statement: “I will not stop defending what is right and justice in Palestine.” Sarsour cannot be deported until he has exhausted all legal avenues available to him. He says that his life would be in danger if he was deported to the West Bank.

The Islamic Society of Milwaukee says that Sarsour has lived in the United States for more than three decades, and that he is “targeted because of his Palestinian and Muslim origins, and his defense of the rights of the Palestinians.”

His legal team said that Sarsour suffers from type 2 diabetes, and lost more than 30 pounds (about 13 kilograms) while in ICE custody.

Sarsour has no criminal record in the United States, and was convicted as a boy before an Israeli military court before coming to the United States, which the Trump administration uses as a pretext to say that he poses a threat. Sarsour says that the US government has been aware of this information for decades.

The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem says that the conviction rate in the military courts, before which Palestinians are tried on charges against them in the West Bank, is 96 percent, and they have a history of extracting confessions through torture.

The administration of President Donald Trump says Sarsour was convicted of throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes of Israeli soldiers.

Sarsour denies committing these acts, and says that he was tortured and forced to make confessions.

Trump is trying to deport foreign pro-Palestinian demonstrators, has threatened to freeze funding for universities that have witnessed protests, impose checks on immigrants' social media accounts, and impose sanctions on critics of Israel.

US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday the departure of the last US forces from Iraq, ending the military presence associated with the mission of the international coalition against ISIS. The US military confirmed that the withdrawal would be completed on September 30, 2026, with the last forces leaving Erbil Air Base.

Trump said, in a post on his “Truth Social” platform: “I am pleased to announce today that the last American forces are leaving Iraq,” considering that the United States’ involvement in Iraq was the result of “very bad decisions,” and that this stage will soon become “part of history.”

Trump praised Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, saying that he supported him from the beginning, and expressed his hope that he would be able to manage the next stage “very well.”

Al-Zaidi assumed the presidency of the government last May after his government gained the confidence of the Iraqi Parliament.

Trump said that the departure of the coalition forces and equipment from the Erbil base represents the end of the mission, describing the withdrawal as taking place in an organized manner, and as the end of a very costly trip to hell. He considered this to be a decisive victory for the United States and Iraq over ISIS.

The “International Coalition” was launched against ISIS in 2014, after the organization took control of large areas of Iraq and Syria, with the aim of supporting local forces in confronting it. The coalition, in cooperation with Iraqi forces and its local partners, succeeded in ending ISIS’s control over territory in Iraq and Syria.

The United States and Iraq agreed in 2024 to end the mission of the “International Coalition,” while the US Department of Defense (the Pentagon) announced, on Wednesday, the completion of the withdrawal of its forces from Iraq and the transition to an Iraqi-led security framework supported by a more normal bilateral security relationship.