Yesterday, Sarsour’s legal team upended the federal government’s case against him in Chicago Immigration Court, exposing the lack of any legitimate basis for a removal effort that has always been aimed at suppressing protected speech.
July 23, 2026 — Chicago, Illinois — In Chicago Immigration Court on Wednesday, Palestinian and Muslim community leader Salah Sarsour appeared before an immigration judge regarding the Trump administration’s attempt to remove the legal US resident, despite his impeccable record for the last 30 years.
“My family has been through a nightmare experience with my unjust arrest and 80 days of detention by ICE, and that continues with this hearing,” Mr. Sarsour said. “They’re still threatening to take me away from my six kids, my nine grandchildren, and my 85-year-old mother that I am the caretaker of.”
Sarsour’s legal team provided the following statement of summary from today’s hearing:
“This immigration case against Salah Sarsour is intended to punish him for speaking out in support of Palestinian rights. There can be no doubt about it — the law under which he has been charged expressly recognizes that he is being targeted for his lawful speech. This is an affront to the First Amendment, and it is meant to chill speech, especially that of immigrants who, under law, enjoy the same right to speak freely as citizens do,” said Sarsour’s lead immigration court counsel Patrick Taurel.
“We are deeply troubled by the use of the immigration courts as a vehicle for advancing the Trump administration’s political agenda and punishing protected speech. The Trump administration is both seeking Salah’s removal and also firing immigration judges whose decisions it dislikes, gutting the independence of the immigration court system. That dynamic is on full display in this case,” said Sam Cole, former immigration judge and Chief Immigration Litigation Counsel for the ACLU of Illinois.
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Salah Sarsour is represented by Grossman Young & Hammond, the ACLU of Illinois and Beldock Levine & Hoffman. His larger legal team includes the Muslim Legal Fund of America as co-counsel.