Salah Sarsour, a Muslim leader in Milwaukee and the president of Wisconsin’s largest mosque, who was arrested by immigration agents in late March, has been ordered released by a federal judge. The news comes after sustained pressure from Sarsour’s family, his community and elected officials. 

“We are ecstatic for Salah Sarsour and his family that they will soon be reunited,” Sarsour’s lawyers said in a statement. “In issuing this order, the federal judge made clear that the government cannot detain a lawful permanent resident for speaking out about Palestinian rights.” 

In his 29-page decision, U.S. District Judge James P. Hanlon, an appointee of President Donald Trump, ruled against arguments by prosecutors that the federal court had no jurisdiction over immigration detentions. Hanlon sided with Sarsour’s attorneys who charged that Sarsour’s arrest was based on his speech supporting Palestinian human rights. Hanlon wrote that Sarsour “has presented a substantial claim of First Amendment retaliation” that his detention is unlawful. Hanlon’s decision has no sway over his pending immigration proceedings for possible deportation, the judge wrote. 

The Trump administration maintains that Sarsour should not have been granted legal residency in the U.S. in 1993 because of a decades-old conviction by an Israeli military court of attacking Israeli soldiers in the West Bank.

While lawyers “continue to fight these baseless claims in court, today is about celebrating a family being reunited,” Sarsour’s lawyers said in their statement. “It is also a sober reminder that, if the government can target Mr. Sarsour, everyone’s free speech rights are at risk.”

Sarsour’s oldest son, Kareem, praised the news. “We’re getting our dad back!” he said in a statement. “This experience has been a nightmare to wake up to every day, with his health at risk in a cruel basement cell simply for speaking up for Palestine. But we know who my dad is, he’s been a voice for the voiceless and the heart of our family and our community. I can’t wait to hug him, and I hope everyone like him will be released.”

Earlier this month, Sarsour’s attorneys also said that staff at the jail had impeded his religious liberties by interrupting or blocking his ability to pray. Jail staff offered Sarsour pork rinds — a food that is forbidden under Muslim dietary laws — his attorneys and family say, and did not provide adequate treatment for his type 2 diabetes, causing him to lose over 30 pounds while in detention. The Department of Homeland Security has denied the accusations.

U.S. Rep.  Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) applauded Sarsour’s release. Moore visited Sarsour at the Clay County Jail in Indiana last Sunday as an interfaith rally of supporters gathered outside and to protest.

“Over the course of two visits, I observed troubling signs of declining health and raised serious concerns about the conditions of his confinement,” said Moore. “No person in ICE custody should be denied adequate nutrition, medical attention, or humane treatment.”

Targeted First Amendment retaliation

Judge Hanlon acknowledged in his decision that Sarsour was born in the West Bank, where he was convicted in 1989 “by the Israeli Ramallah Military Court” of throwing Molotov cocktails and stones at Israeli forces, and of attempting to possess weapons in 1995. Sarsour became a conditional lawful U.S. resident in 1993, and became a full lawful permanent resident in 1998. Under Republican president George W. Bush, Sarsour’s naturalization application was approved by immigration authorities in 2002. Sarsour has not had a criminal record of any kind since arriving in the U.S. over 30 years ago.

Since his arrest, the Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly brought up Sarsour’s conviction by the Israeli military. Sarsour’s family and supporters, however, say that such convictions are often based on coerced confessions and should not be given weight. Sarsour often told stories of being detained and tortured by Israeli forces, his family members said. United Nations experts found that Israel has denied due process rights to Palestinians in the West Bank for the last 60 years, and there are pervasive reports from Palestinian prisoners of torture, sexual abuse, and maltreatment by Israeli authorities. 

Hanlon noted that Sarsour is president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, the largest mosque in Wisconsin, and is also a board member of American Muslims for Palestine. “Mr. Sarsour speaks openly about his support for Palestinian human rights,” Hanlon wrote. For this, Sarsour was added to the Canary Mission, an Israel-based doxxing website with “anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian animus,” Hanlon wrote. 

In October 2024, American Muslims for Palestine was labeled as part of a terrorist network which supports Hamas in a report authored by the conservative Heritage Foundations’ called “Project Esther: A National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism.” Hanlon noted that the New York Times reported on Project Esther’s plan to brand “a broad range of critics of Israel as ‘effectively a terrorist support network,’ so that they could be deported, defunded, sued, fired, expelled, ostracized and otherwise excluded from what it considered ‘open society.’” 

 

Video of Salah Sarsour being reunited with his family. (Video courtesy of Yaseen Najeed)

 

Shortly after Trump was reelected, “government agents arrested or attempted to arrest noncitizens who had spoken publicly in support of Palestinian rights or critically of the Israeli government,” Hanlon wrote. In June 2025,  Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a Homeland Security memorandum stating that Sarsour was eligible for deportation “because his actions undermine U.S. foreign policy to combat antisemitism around the world as well [as] U.S. foreign policy to combat activity that supports foreign terrorist organizations.” 

Hanlon highlighted that in early February 2026 the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights announced that the department would “investigate,” “prosecute” and “dismantle” organizations like American Muslims for Palestine. Sarsour’s profile on the Canary Mission was updated on March 26, followed by his arrest by armed plainclothes agents four days later on March 30.

The judge denied requests from prosecutors to impose a $25,000 bond and an ankle monitor on Sarsour. 

“Such conditions are not necessary here,” Hanlon wrote. “Mr. Sarsour has no history of non-compliance and is well established in the Milwaukee community.” Sarsour’s family members all live in the U.S. and he has not traveled outside the country since 1998. Hanlon ruled that Sarsour had “provided voluminous evidence demonstrating that he is not a risk of flight.” 

Sarsour was ordered to be released on his own recognizance with the conditions that he remain in Wisconsin, attend all court hearings and participate in his removal proceedings.

“The court’s ruling affirms what many of us have been saying for months,” said Moore, “Mr. Sarsour’s continued detention is unjustifiable.” She expressed gratitude “to the legal advocates, community leaders and family members who fought tirelessly for Mr. Sarsour’s release.”

Nihad Awad, national executive director for the Council on American Islamic Relations, called the court decision “a welcome and long-overdue step toward justice for Salah Sarsour, a respected Muslim community leader whose detention has caused immense pain to his family and community.” 

Awad said that “no one should be punished for their faith, advocacy, or identity. We urge ICE to immediately comply with the judge’s order, reunite Mr. Sarsour with his loved ones, and end the disturbing pattern of targeting Muslim, Palestinian, and other community members for detention and intimidation. This case is a reminder that due process, human dignity, and constitutional rights must never be optional.”

Moore visits Sarsour in jail  

In an interview on Wednesday, before Hanlon issued his order, Moore told the Wisconsin Examiner that she believed Sarsour had become a “high value target for censoring people” as the Trump administration carried out its mass deportation campaign and the targeting of pro-Palestine activists. She visited Sarsour Sunday at the Indiana Clay County Jail, where he was detained. 

“It’s not a rundown place,” Moore said, adding that some of the facility was “definitely a new construction.” However, during her visit, she said, “I didn’t go back into the area where the prisoners live.”

After surrendering her phone, Moore sat with Sarsour, who she said appeared surprised to see her. 

Sarsour hugged her, Moore said. He’d clearly lost weight, even since her last visit in late April, she noted. 

“His health is at risk,” said Moore. “He has diabetes, as has been reported. And you know, I’m not a doctor, I’m not in a position to diagnose anything, but he has continued to lose weight. And he says that’s because he tries to exercise to manage his blood sugar.”

She added that she saw “other things that I noticed that I reported to his doctor, and I think he needs to see a doctor about his diabetes.”

Moore said that since Sarsour’s health began deteriorating, the facility had been asked to change his diet to accommodate his diabetes. She said jail personnel didn’t change his diet but simply gave him smaller portions of food. 

“If they served bread they just gave him a smaller piece. If they had mashed potatoes, they served him a smaller portion of mashed potatoes,” she said. “He hasn’t seen a fresh fruit or vegetable since he’s been in there.”

 Moore stressed that while in custody Sarsour “had earlier episodes of illness and he had to just wing it on his own.” She said that neither his doctor nor a jail doctor have visited him.

While Moore was visiting the jail on Sunday, a large Jewish-led interfaith rally uniting 150 supporters had gathered outside, Moore said. They chanted so loud that Sarsour could hear the commotion from inside the facility. 

They chanted “Free Salah Sarsour!” “No ICE Terror!” “You can’t deport a movement!” Kareem Sarsour was also outside the jail in support of his father’s release. 

“We never imagined we would be placed in the situation we are today,” said Kareem, according to a press release from the group that led the rally. “Every day is nerve-wracking knowing my father is only a few hours away, suffering, and we can’t reach him.”

Moore said she told Sarsour about the rally. “I told him that indeed there were people out there and described the crowd, and he was very — he said that it gave him hope for justice,” said Moore. 

The rally demonstrated how important Sarsour is to his community as a leader, activist, business owner and bridge builder, Moore said.

Moore said she met a minister outside the rally who told her he was a Trump supporter. “He was just hanging around,” said Moore. “Before that was over we had him praying for justice for Mr. Sarsour.” 

Like Sarsour’s attorneys, Moore said she believes Sarsour is a victim of retaliation by the Trump administration for speech. 

“Nobody gets to speak against the Trump deportation strategy,” she said. “We know that he told people who voted for him that he was going to target the murders and the rapists and the gang members. And these are people that no one has any problem with him removing. But no, people like teachers — like Yessenia Ruano —  people like Abrego Garcia, people like Salah Sarsour.”

Administration officials, Moore charged, are “thinking that they can create an inflammatory environment to cover up the outrageous immigration raids and programs that they’re conducting.”

A federal judge heard from attorneys Monday about the treatment of Salah Sarsour, the Palestinian president of Milwaukee’s Islamic Society and a legal U.S. permanent resident who is being held in an Indiana immigration detention facility.

Sarsour’s lawyers say that since arriving at the Clay County Detention Center in Brazil, Indiana, following his arrest by federal immigration agents in March Sarsour has lost 30 pounds, is not receiving appropriate care for his type 2 diabetes, and has been denied the ability to practice his religion. Separate from Sarsour’s immigration proceedings, Sarsour’s attorneys pushed in federal court for his release, arguing that his treatment at the detention center amounted to a First Amendment violation. 

Luna Droubi, an attorney who represents Sarsour, said that U.S. District Judge James Patrick Hanlon listened closely during the Monday status hearing and asked questions about the 53-year-old business owner, activist and grandfather’s experiences. The judge “addressed and directed the facility to take a look at Salah Sarsour’s medical guidance, and I do think he has real concerns about his treatment,” said Droubi, adding that Sarsour “really has been tormented for exercising his religious beliefs.” 

Initially, Droubi explained, “he wasn’t able to pray five times a day; they would disrupt his prayers at certain hours and tell him to stop doing it.” Sarsour’s requests for Halal meals, foods which are considered permissible in Islam, have been denied, and obtaining a makeshift prayer towel proved challenging as well. When he asked for food that would help him maintain balanced blood sugar levels because of his diabetes, Sarsour was offered pork rinds by detention facility staff according to his attorneys, in violation of his religious dietary requirements.

“It’s been a very difficult time for him,” Droubi told the Examiner. “He’s the president of the largest Islamic Center in Milwaukee. … He is a type 2 diabetic and he has very clear medical instructions that he requires daily glucose testing. At today’s hearing, they represented that they had started daily glucose testing and then somebody at the facility was instructed that they only need to do it once a month.” That goes directly against medical guidance, she added, since glucose levels can drop and rise on a daily basis, “and that can be incredibly dangerous.” 

At one point, Droubi said, Sarsour experienced severe abdominal pain and then was told “there’s nothing we can do for it. There’s no medical professional here. You’re going to have to wait until morning.” She stressed that “he couldn’t even stand up, and it’s only been two months. So he’s really, really struggled.”

Since Jan. 1 of this year, there have been 18 deaths of people detained in immigration detention facilities nationwide. This has outpaced the deaths reported last year –  the highest in two decades. This comes as Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that it will stop reporting the deaths of people who’ve been recently released by detention, the AP reported.

Sarsour’s attorneys argued that there are numerous reasons why Sarsour needs to be immediately released, and that it’s within the federal court’s authority to do so. Droubi said that Sarsour is being held “because of his speech and associations,” and that the arrest was purely punitive for that speech.

Sarsour grew up in the West Bank and became an outspoken critic of the Israeli government and a supporter of Palestinian rights and freedoms as an adult. That activism continued after the militant arm of Hamas attacked Israel in late 2023, killing 1,200 people, followed by a large-scale Israeli assault on Palestinians living in Gaza which has killed at least 75,000 people while displacing thousands more. 

The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly called Sarsour a “terrorist” who was convicted of throwing Molotov cocktails into the homes of Israeli forces.

“This was an Israeli military kangaroo court,” Othman Atta, executive director of Milwaukee’s Islamic Society, said of Sarsour’s conviction during a community gathering and press conference held in early April after Sarsour’s arrest. “Human rights groups will tell you that these claims are coerced under torture, under interrogation. So absolutely, that’s not true.” At the gathering Atta also said that Sarsour spent two years in Israeli detention as a teenager. “He would talk to us many times how for 80 straight days, he was interrogated, and brutalized, and tortured while he was in Israeli military custody.”

These experiences are widely reported by detained Palestinians. In 2024, United Nations experts found that due process rights for Palestinians in the West Bank, where Sarsour grew up and was detained, had been violated by Israeli authorities for the past 60 years. 

“He is also an illegal alien that lied on his green card application to fraudulently gain legal status in the U.S. under the Clinton Administration,” a DHS spokesperson said in an emailed statement to the Examiner. “Any accusation of discrimination by ICE agents is FALSE. All illegal aliens in ICE custody receive three meals a day and proper medical treatment. Sarsour is a criminal and a terrorist and will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.”

Droubi said that the federal judge is considering the argument for Sarsour’s release. Attorneys representing the government say that the federal court has no jurisdiction over a claim of unlawful detention. 

“He should be home with his family,” Droubi told the Examiner. “He really should.”

Democratic U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin, Bernie Sanders, and Chris Van Hollen have sent a joint letter to the secretary of  the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), condemning the arrest and detention of Salah Sarsour, the president of Milwaukee’s Islamic Society, and charging that Sarsour has received inadequate medical care Sarsour at an Indiana immigration detention center where he’s being held. 

Sarsour has been detained since late March.  His family and supporters say that Sarsour, a man of Palestinian descent, was targeted for his criticism of the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians and the mass slaughter in Gaza. DHS has accused the father and business owner of lying on his green card application more than 30 years ago. 

The federal government has called Sarsour a terrorist who was detained as a teenager for attempting to possess weapons or ammunition. As a boy Sarsour was detained by Israeli forces in the West Bank, where torture and abuse of Palestinian prisoners have been reported for decades, something Sarsour said had happened to him as well. 

In their letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Baldwin, Sanders, and Van Hollen called Sarsour a business owner, father, grandfather and a “respected leader in the Milwaukee community.” He has lived in the United States as a legal permanent resident since 1993 and has not acquired a criminal record in that time. 

“We are deeply concerned that Mr. Sarsour was targeted in retaliation for his activism,” the senators wrote. “Through his work with the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and American Muslims for Palestine, Mr. Sarsour has spoken out passionately against the war in Gaza and on issues impacting the Islamic Society. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees everyone in our country, including lawful permanent residents, the right to speak freely without fear of retribution from the government.”

The senators added that they are concerned about Sarour’s health in detention. “Those in federal custody must be treated humanely and receive the level of care required,” the senators wrote. “Mr. Sarsour is a diabetic and we are concerned that he does not have appropriate access to healthcare, medical supplies, and a healthy diet required to properly manage that chronic condition, including by regularly testing blood glucose.” 

Sarsour has also not been provided “reasonable religious accommodations, such as a prayer mat,” the senators wrote. “He had been using a facility-issued bath towel to perform his prayers, but this was recently confiscated without explanation and Mr. Sarsour has been forced to pray on the facility’s barren floors. This treatment is unacceptable.”

Baldwin, Sanders, and Van Hollen demanded answers to several questions by May 31. They asked DHS to provide documentation that immigration officers relied on when they decided to arrest Sarsour and requested communications with the White House or Office of Budget and Management regarding Sarsour’s detention. 

They also asked whether Sarsour has access to proper healthcare and nutrition, what protocols immigration detention centers have regarding detainees with hyperglycemia or hypoglycemia, whether those protocols are being followed with Sarsour, and what protocols exist for providing detainees with reasonable religious accommodations. 

“Our nation’s founders realized that democracy cannot exist in a nation with a government that restricts or limits the speech and expression of its people,” they wrote. “The Constitution protects an individual’s right to express their political views and have their voice heard. We condemn any attempts by this Administration to use the power of the United States government to unfairly target and punish people for simply disagreeing with it.”

Members of Congress, including U.S. Reps. Gwen Moore, Mark Pocan, Greg Cesar of Texas, and Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, have also called for Sarsour’s release, joining a list of supporters   including Gov. Tony Evers, Milwaukee elected leaders, former elected officials  and numerous local activist and advocacy groups. 

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Hundreds of people marched in Milwaukee’s annual May Day protest on a chilly, cloudy Friday, joining thousands of other protests, walk-outs, and economic black-outs taking place nationwide. After first gathering outside of the offices of the immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera on Mitchell Street, a crowd spanning multiple city blocks marched north towards the downtown Federal Building. 

The action aimed to draw attention to the contributions of working class people, including immigrants,  while condemning the policies of the Trump administration, and calling for the release of Wisconsinites who’ve been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

“No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here,” the protesters chanted, marching down the roadway with traffic assistance from both their own volunteers and Milwaukee police officers. 

Marchers were greeted with a performance by a mariachi band playing  music as people cheered and danced. Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, said that those at the protest were joining “over 3,000 actions across the country, and tens of thousands of people in more than 30 cities that are part of a national immigrant-rights network.” 

Backed by the occasional rhythms of parade drums and cheers Neumann-Ortiz declared, “We are May Day strong!” She said that those participating in May Day protests are “leading the way in the movement against authoritarianism, against white nationalism, against ICE gestapo terror.” She praised the immigrant workers who couldn’t be there, as well as the students who participated in the May Day protest. Neumann-Ortiz said that President Donald Trump and his allies “want us to believe that we are powerless, and we know that is a lie.”

People of all ages and ethnic backgrounds came from as far away as Racine and Green Bay to attend the Milwaukee protest. They carried signs calling for the abolition of ICE, an end to the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza and occupation of Palestinian people, rolling back U.S. militarism, taxing billionaires, an end to local police cooperation with ICE, and generally denouncing Trump’s policies and character.

From the stage, speakers also demanded the reunification of immigrant families separated by ICE, investment in human needs, and the establishment of what Neumann-Ortiz called “a dignified immigration system with a path to citizenship for the undocumented,” as well as for recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and people  fleeing danger in their home countries. 

She also called for lawmakers to support granting state driver’s licenses for immigrants and praised members of Congress who withheld funding from  the Department of Homeland Security as they sought accountability and standards for ICE officers. 

 

 

Speakers’ remarks in English were  translated to Spanish for the crowd. 

José Ramirez, president of the Milwaukee Chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, said he is both the  son of immigrants and an immigrant himself. Ramirez and his sister were born in Mexico and came to the U.S. in the early 2000s. Both of his parents worked in the meat packing industry. When he grew older, Ramirez became a first-generation union member, and worked jobs in concrete and demolition. 

Ramirez asked the crowd to look around at the different colors, flags, signs, and people. “I like to believe that everybody here truly believes in the same thing,” despite their differences, Ramirez said. “That women’s rights are human rights. That gay rights are human rights. That workers’ rights and immigrant rights are human rights.” 

Ramirez stressed that the victories working-class people have achieved have not come because of the sympathy of career politicians, whether Democrat or Republican, but from the sacrifice of working-class people.

Kareem Sarsour, the son of Salah Sarsour —  the president of the Milwaukee Islamic Society who was arrested by ICE in late March — also addressed the crowd. While he was born and raised in Milwaukee, Kareem said that his father was an immigrant who’d grown up as a Palestinian boy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Sarsour was a legal permanent resident for over 30 years when ICE officers ambushed him at a property he owned. Sarsour’s family and supporters believe that he was targeted because of his longtime advocacy for Palestinian liberation, and for sharing his experiences while in Israeli custody. Sarsour is being held in an immigration detention facility in Indiana.

Kareem recalled that on March 30, his wife called him at work and told him  that his father “was abducted and nowhere to be found.” Kareem Sarsour said that “no family should get that call.” He said of Salah Sarsour and other people he called “heroes”  “we believe God is with them, and with our unity we’re able to take a stand and say enough is enough! In sha’ Allah — God willing — justice will prevail, our heroes will come back home, Palestine will be free, and our families will be reunited.”

Ingrid Walker Henry, President of the Milwaukee Teacher Education Association (MTEA), said, “ Everywhere we turn, our rights are under attack. Our neighbors are being terrorized by a hostile administration, they are using every trick in the fascist playbook.” Walker Henry called Sarsour a “pillar of our community,” and denounced his detention. “I have three words — and I’m going to want you to repeat them — free Salah now!” 

Walker Henry said that her union members are getting organized “because we know that no one is coming to save us, except us.” MTEA members established school defense teams to protect schools and families this school year, “because no family should have to choose between taking their children to school and risking their family’s safety,” she said. “Across this city, MTEA members are stepping up to protect our children from this administration.” 

Walker Henry said  actions like May Day teach the next generation how to fight back against oppression. “MTEA members will not rest until every student, every public school, and every family has what they need to thrive.”

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International Workers Day on May 1 commemorates the great labor struggles of the 19th and early 20th centuries, when workers fought and died for decent wages and working conditions.

The militant energy of the early labor movement, long dormant in the United States, has been making a comeback recently as Americans chafe at economic instability, the destruction of health care and other basic rights and protections, and recoil from a government dedicated to further enriching billionaires at the expense of working people. Add to that the campaign of terror the Trump administration has launched against immigrants who do much of the manual labor in this country and the violent repression of the neighbors who try to protect them, and it’s starting to feel like 1886.

On Friday, May 1, labor unions and immigrants rights groups are coming together to organize mass walkouts in more than 3,000 cities across the U.S. “No work. No school. No shopping” is the tag line for the national campaign, joined in Wisconsin by Madison Teachers Inc., the Southcentral Federation of Labor, and myriad civic groups. 

This week’s protests grow out of “A Day Without Immigrants,” the May Day general strikes that began 20 years ago to oppose Wisconsin U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner’s federal bill that proposed making unauthorized presence in the U.S. a crime punishable by mandatory prison sentences. For the first time, in those May Day protests, “you saw largely Latino immigrant, working-class families … with grandparents and baby strollers, coming out in this peaceful wave of mass marches,” recalls Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, the Milwaukee-based immigrant workers’ rights group. “It really was like an earthquake, and it shelved that terrible bill and put the conversation of immigration reform back on the table.”

This year, national labor unions are showing up for the May Day actions in a big way. That’s inspiring, because it’s clear that massive resistance from a broad, working-class movement is what it’s going to take to stop the brutal repression and outright theft of public resources by the current regime.

“Workers’ rights and immigrants’ rights are the same,” Andy King, managing director of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) said on a May Day press call this week. His group’s May Day demands include no more funding for ICE and Border Patrol, permanent protections and a pathway to citizenship for immigrants, and stopping the construction of megawarehouses for the mass detention of human beings. 

The fear-mongering about immigrants coming from the Trump administration is not an accident, Neumann-Ortiz said during the same call. “It’s a strategy to divide us, to scapegoat and to distract from the real challenges working families face, and in particular, the growing control of our economy by billionaires.” She talked about the heartbreaking case of Elvira Benitez, a mother of three from Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, who was arrested by ICE during a routine check-in after she was approved for a green card. Now she’s sitting in detention in Kentucky, and her youngest daughter is under medical supervision for suicidal thoughts related to the traumatic experience of being separated from her mom, Neumann-Ortiz said.

She also highlighted the case of Salah Sarsour, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, a legal permanent resident, who was detained by ICE in what appears to be a retaliatory arrest for his political speech defending Palestinian rights. 

A secretive police agency that whisks people away in order to silence dissent should worry all of us. “And these are not isolated cases, as we know,” Neumann Ortiz said. “It’s a system.”

Deaths in ICE custody have hit a new record since the beginning of Trump’s second administration. Yet the federal government plans to expand warehouse detention to house more than 92,000 people. Adriana Rivera of the Florida Immigrant Coalition told reporters on FIRM’s May Day press call, “our state has become ground zero for a system that warehouses human beings for top dollar, makes jokes and merch at their expense, where suffering is hidden and accountability is absent.”

“Shut down these disgusting warehouses and choose a path rooted in care,” she demanded.

What is happening to our country? What will it take to wake people up?

During the same week I listened to activists planning the May Day walkout, my phone rang and an automated voice informed me that Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson was holding an impromptu “telephone town hall” in the middle of a weekday afternoon. I stayed on and listened to Johnson tell his constituents that he favors eliminating the Senate filibuster in order to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security without the guardrails Democrats are seeking for ICE and Border Patrol. We’re living in too “dangerous” a time not to act immediately, Johnson said, and Congress is “too broken” to make these decisions in a deliberative fashion. That’s why, he explained, now that President Trump is in office and Republicans hold a majority, he has switched his position on ending the minority party’s power to filibuster legislation. Johnson wants to get Democrats out of the way to pass the SAVE America Act, which will severely curtail voting rights on the thoroughly disproven theory that undocumented immigrants are voting in large numbers and swaying U.S. elections. 

Johnson listened approvingly to voters on the call who recycled Trump’s Big Lie that Democrats are stealing elections. He expressed his enthusiasm for RFK Jr. and “progress” on his pet issue — getting rid of supposedly harmful vaccines. Some callers expressed anxiety about the Iran war, with Johnson reassuring them that it was going “perfectly.” One woman swore at him and was disconnected. But the most revealing part of the call came when a caller mentioned that a lot of people are worried about health care — a brewing crisis in Wisconsin where 63,000 people are losing Medicaid coverage because of Trump’s cuts and another 20,000 have dropped their Affordable Care Act coverage because of rising premium costs after Republicans refused to renew ACA enhanced tax credits.

The root cause of the problem with health care, Johnson said, is the government’s involvement. 

“Take a look at Amazon, what that private sector competitor has done to deliver products in hours, sometimes at a really low cost. So private sector consumerism works, but we’ve driven consumerism out of healthcare by having somebody else pay for it,”  he said. His solution? “Move to a rational system of catastrophic care plans, and then most of healthcare paid out of pocket with real consumerism.”

Never mind Johnson’s choice to hold up Amazon as a paragon of business, a company that was sued by the Federal Trade Commission for illegally blocking competition, inflating prices using its monopoly power, and stifling innovation. Never mind the multiple lawsuits brought by its drivers for high-pressure, inhumane working conditions and that unfortunate incident in which a warehouse worker died on the floor while his coworkers were allegedly told by management to ignore him and keep production rolling.

Setting all that aside, how many regular voters in Wisconsin agree that the best way to handle crushing healthcare costs is to make them pay out of pocket for every medication, office visit and procedure?

As Trump’s approval ratings reach a new low and gas prices spike, Johnson’s position that you should cover the full cost of your healthcare out of pocket is unlikely to give Republicans a bump.

The problem in our country is that we seem to have lost the class consciousness that animated the labor movement of the Progressive Era.

Instead, today, we have a right-wing populism that purports to defend the interests of blue collar workers but is, in fact, investing in the immiseration of the vast majority of Americans, the theft of their healthcare, their education, their wages and workplace protections, for the benefit of oligarchs like Johnson, who couldn’t care less if people suffer, sicken and die, so long as he remains rich. 

I don’t think people can put up with this for much longer. The inhumane treatment of regular, hardworking people, the pain and waste of the greed-driven regime we are living with should turn the stomach of every American. 

May Day is a sign of hope. 

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Advocates and loved ones of Salah Sarsour gathered in Washington D.C. to demand his release from federal immigration detention. Sarsour — a green card holder and lawful permanent resident of Milwaukee and president of the city’s Islamic Society — was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents earlier this month. The federal government accuses Sarsour, who is Palestinian, of lying on his green card application in 1993. 

Sarsour’s son Kareem said that his father is the main caregiver for an elderly member of their family who has dementia. Kareem demanded Sarsour’s release, emphasizing that he is  a father, grandfather and leader in the community. 

Supporters are demanding that Sarsour be released and returned to his family, and that all charges against him be dropped. They also  demanded that the U.S. to stop weaponizing immigration law to target pro-Palestine advocates, and for Congress to investigate the targeting of lawful permanent residents for First Amendment activity. 

Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said of Sarsour, “He has spent more than 30 years of his life strengthening those around him. As a Palestinian resident of this country, he has built a huge community. He’s a business owner, a job creator, a leader who is well respected in the inter-faith community, among elected officials, and a diversity of communities fighting in the state of Wisconsin.”

Awad and other supporters of Sarsour say that he’s a political prisoner being persecuted over his opposition of the Israeli government and support for the Palestinian people. “To abduct Salah Sarsour for his politically protected First Amendment activity, upholding justice for the Palestinians and for all people, sends the troubling message that our government is failing to protect basic freedoms that sets America apart from other countries,” said Awad. “We call on this administration to listen to the American people who have been telling them in one form after another to stop the Israelization of U.S. policy, and to serve the American people.” 

Sarsour’s loved ones say that he has long been vocal about Israel and Palestine, having grown up in the West Bank where he was detained for two years by Israeli authorities. Sarsour’s family members say  he was tortured while in custody, a practice which has been documented by humanitarian organizations even in recent years. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement earlier this month that Sarsour had been accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at Israeli armed forces.

Sarsour is currently being held in an ICE facility in Indiana. Dr. Osama Abu Irshaid also echoed the First Amendment concerns around Sarsour’s arrest. “What does it even mean?” Irshaid asked. “What does it even mean to be a threat to our foreign policy? Someone who stands up and speaks on behalf of the oppressed. On behalf of a people who were the subject and continue to be the subject of a genocide.” 

Naming other Muslim activists who’ve been arrested or detained by ICE for speaking out for Palestine, Irshaid asked, “what does that mean? Does it mean that America stands for genocide?” Irshaid said that the Trump administration  has openly pursued what it views as political opponents, including high profile people such as former FBI director James Comey, and New York Attorney General Latisha James.

“So America has to reckon with this stuff,” said Irshaid. “It’s no longer about minorities. You could be a white American and be shot in broad daylight and get called a domestic terrorist, as what happened to the two American citizens who were shot by a rogue agency called ICE now,” a reference to the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis earlier this year.

“And you could be abducted from the middle of the street just because you dare to say I disagree with this government, and I disagree with our foreign policy,” Irshaid said. “And you could be targeted just because you dared, at one point, to prosecute Donald Trump based on the laws of the land.” 

Irshaid stressed that it is time for people to realize “that the weaponization of our own government against any minority group, against any people means that it could be weaponized against the entire American people.”

Oussama Jammal, secretary general of the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations, also said that he feels Sarsour is being detained for political reasons. “This is a free country, we are allowed to speak our minds,” said Jammal. “Otherwise we could be another rogue country of the ones that we see — what do they call it — banana republics. So we demand the immediate release of Mr. Salah Sarsour, and truly hold the American values ahead of any other agenda other than an American agenda.”

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