Over two months after his detention by immigration agents, advocates of Wisconsin-based Palestinian activist Salah Sarsour are raising concerns over reports of a dramatic decline in his health.
Family and attorneys of Sarsour, who is in his early 50s and has type 2 diabetes that requires daily monitoring of his blood sugar level, say he has lost around 30 pounds and has experienced severe abdominal pain. They say he has been subjected to medical neglect while in custody in Indiana.
“The government's blatant disregard of Salah Sarsour’s First Amendment rights should outrage everyone: He was targeted and taken because of his advocacy for Palestine, and, while imprisoned, he has been tormented by guards, suffered medical neglect, and has been denied basic religious rights,” Luna Droubi, an attorney for Sarsour, said in a statement.
Sarsour, a small business owner and president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, has been living in the US for over 30 years, was seized by ICE on 30 March when he was pulled over while driving his car. He is a permanent US resident with no criminal record. He was allegedly detained by ICE based on arrest records from when he was a teenager in the West Bank.
"My father has been a lawful resident of the United States for decades. It’s a moral stain on this country that he now sits in ICE detention, being denied medical care or even a hearing by a federal judge to address the legitimacy of his detention. My kids want their grandfather back, and I want my father back," said Kareem Sarsour, Salah's son, in a statement.
Sarsour’s lawyers, who filed a habeas corpus petition, say that his detention was illegal and that it was intended to silence his pro-Palestinian advocacy, violating his constitutional right to free speech.
"The abduction of Mr Sarsour, a beloved leader of Milwaukee's Muslim community, is utterly unjust and cruel. Once again, the administration is targeting a Palestinian-American for having the courage to be a leader and to stand against injustice. We call for his immediate release and return to his family," reads a statement issued in April by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, part of a coalition of US Muslim groups urging for the release of Sarsour.
Several lawmakers, including Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Marc Pocan of Wisconsin and the state's governor, Tony Evers.
“This is completely unacceptable. Salah Sarsour is a respected leader in the Milwaukee community, and his detention raises serious concerns about the continued targeting of lawful residents based on the colour of their skin or their political beliefs,” Congresswoman Gwen Moore of Wisconsin said in a statement.
Following his apprehension by ICE in March, Sarsour was reportedly transferred from Wisconsin to Illinois and then taken to Indiana. He is currently being held at Clay County Jail in Brazil, Indiana, where he has allegedly been subjected to medical neglect and insufficient nutrition.
Sarsour is one of many detainees who have been transferred to a detention facility outside their home state, a practice that has raised questions over the conditions of these locations and isolation from the detainees’ local support networks.
It is unclear where Sarsour would go after his detention in Indiana, though Trump has increasingly been sending deportees to third countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Sarsour is being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and Beldock Levine & Hoffman, along with the Muslim Legal Fund of America as co-counsel.