Salah Sarsour, a US permanent resident for nearly three decades, was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in March. He was released after a federal judge found he had probably been detained in retaliation of his advocacy for Palestinian rights, which the federal judge said would render his detention unlawful.
Despite that ruling, the administration pressed forward and fast-tracked Sarsour’s immigration case – a separate legal track – and on Tuesday night an immigration judge ruled he is “removable”.
Judge Jayme Salinardi, who was brought in from out of state to oversee the case, announced he would be retiring shortly after issuing the decision.
In a statement, Sarsour’s attorneys called the ruling “a setback for free speech rights”.
From another source:
*That meant Salinardi could not look behind Rubio’s decision to examine the evidence supporting it, Taurel said.“If the Secretary of State says the person is deportable, it is game over,” he told reporters Wednesday.*
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/30/us-judge-rules-wisconsin-mosque-leader-salah-sarsour-can-be-deportedBasically “you are being prosecuted, therefore we will convict you”. The kind of judging that is normal in authoritarian countries like Russia, but runs contrary to liberalism. The only bright side is that they had to bring this judge in from out of state, which indicates that he might be an exception and that not all immigration judges are full-on authoritarian bootlickers (yet). That the prosecutors could bring in their preferred judge shows that the entire process is unfair, there’s no separation of powers.
