Last week, a federal judge in Indiana released Salah Sarsour from prison, ruling that his detention raises serious first amendment concerns, particularly regarding free speech about Palestine. A car full of his family and friends immediately departed for Brazil, Indiana, where Salah had been held for two and a half months, picking him up and returning to Milwaukee, where a crowd of hundreds congregated in the parking lot of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee to greet him.

A visibly smaller Salah, who lost over 30 pounds and was refused medical attention for his type 2 diabetes while in prison, spoke that night about the struggle going forward. No one, he avers, should be detained in ICE prisons in the unspeakable conditions he experienced. Calling for unity, he links the struggles to free Palestine and to stop ICE terror.

The judge’s decision came three days after a vigil led by Jews for Salah, a midwest coalition of dozens of organizations including Never Again Action, converged on Brazil. The gathering included Wisconsin Congresswoman Gwen Moore, who managed to visit Salah in jail while the assembled crowd of over 150 chanted and sang outside.

Continued freedom for the green card holder will involve fighting a pending deportation case. Since his release, Salah has described the appalling conditions he experienced in the Clay County jail, a 287g facility that holds 250 ICE detainees nightly. He described his closeness with the other prisoners and explained that the national pressure and visibility around his case mattered inside the jail: guards would caution one another that “this one is different.”

Lessons learned: protest matters; lifting up the names of those disappeared into ICE gulags matters; none of us are free until all of us are free.

To continue supporting Salah Sarsour: https://www.launchgood.com/v4/campaign/salah_sarsour_justice_fund