US Palestinian leader Salah Sarsour continues to speak out amid deportation proceedings

Salah Sarsour, a Palestinian decades-long resident of the US, is speaking out on his time in ICE detention amid continued deportation proceedings.

On Wednesday, the 32-year US resident and green card holder appeared before a judge for a second immigration hearing.

Sarsour, a Milwaukee-based community leader in his early 50s, says he was targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for his pro-Palestinian activism, protected under the First Amendment, when he was arrested and detained in March.

"This immigration proceeding has made it clear that I am being unfairly targeted by this administration for my advocacy on Palestinian human rights," he said in a public statement this week.

"I put my trust in God and my legal team to navigate this attack on me and the life I have built in America, and that I can continue to be with my family in Wisconsin as I have for the past three decades," he continued.

Following his arrest in Wisconsin, Sarsour was taken to a detention facility in neighbouring Indiana, where he reportedly experienced a drastic loss of weight and did not receive adequate medical care for his type 2 diabetes. This led to a widespread campaign in support of his release, which included Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers and multiple members of Congress.

Since his release from ICE detention has said that he sees similarities between his time in ICE detention and when he was in Israeli custody during his youth in the West Bank.

"Aspects of my confinement were hauntingly reminiscent of my experience growing up under a brutal Israeli military occupation in the West Bank, where we became accustomed to violent, humiliating treatment at the hands of Israeli soldiers," he wrote in an op-ed in USA Today earlier this month.

As a teenager, he was imprisoned by Israel for two years on charges that included throwing stones.

The Department of Homeland Security have said he was arrested for allegedly lying on his US residency application.

"Salah Salem Sarsour is a terrorist convicted for throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes of Israeli armed forces. This illegal alien from Jordan lied on his green card application to gain legal status in the US," said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis in a public statement days after Sarsour's arrest.

Witnesses at Sarsour’s hearing this week, Bonita Cho, an immigration attorney and Amahl Bishara, Associate Professor and Chair of the Anthropology Department at Tufts University, stated that Sarsour has said his confession in Israel was coerced and that Palestinian children throwing stones is often a form of expression in response to occupation.

Sarsour's lead immigration court counsel Patrick Taurel, said in a public statement, "It is an outrage that we are here at all. There can be no doubt that the Trump Administration is seeking to stifle pro-Palestine speech. Mr. Sarsour has been subjected to this traumatizing experience simply because they disfavor his speech."