US prepares to deport Muslim community leader

DALLAS, United States (MNTV) – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is preparing to deport Dallas Muslim community leader Marwan Marouf.

Marouf was arrested after his green card was denied over donations made more than 20 years ago to the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), a defunct Muslim charity whose leaders were convicted of having ties to Hamas.

A federal immigration judge ruled to deport the 54-year-old, who has lived in the U.S. for 30 years. He could be deported to Jordan within the next two weeks, the prosecutor told the court on Nov. 20.

Marouf, held at the Bluebonnet detention center in Anson, Texas, appeared at the virtual hearing but did not testify due to health concerns, his lawyers said.

Born in Kuwait, Marouf is a Jordanian citizen of Palestinian heritage. He was arrested on his way to work on Sept. 22, after his green card was denied over past donations to HLF, which closed in 2001.

Judge Abdias Tida denied Marouf’s request for voluntary departure, which would have allowed him to leave the US on his own terms and potentially return legally in the future.

Marouf will not appeal the decision, his lawyer Marium Uddin of the Muslim Legal Fund of America said. He accepted he would have to leave the US, a decision she described as born of prayer and long spiritual reflection.

He accepted the ruling “not as an acknowledgment of any wrongdoing but as a decision born of impossible circumstances imposed by a system that has failed him at every turn,” Uddin wrote in a statement to Religion News Service.

“It is easy to say Marwan has lost America. But the truth cuts the other way: America has lost Marwan, and in doing so, has lost a piece of its own promise.”

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, confirmed Marouf was denied a green card because of his involvement with HLF.

“A green card is a privilege, not a right,” she said. “If you are pushing Hamas propaganda, supporting terrorist organizations, and conducting other anti-American actions, you will face consequences.”

The U.S. Department of Justice says voluntary departures are granted at the discretion of judges to detainees who show they intend and have the means to leave the country and demonstrate they are “good persons.”

His lawyers argue that treating his involvement with HLF more than two decades ago as material support for terrorism sets “a dangerous precedent, opening the floodgates to punish entire communities for lawful, good-faith humanitarian activity.”

Marouf arrived in the U.S. 30 years ago on a student visa and is a longtime member of the Muslim American Society’s Dallas chapter. In the 1990s, he donated nearly $14,000 to HLF as part of his obligation to pay zakat, or charitable giving. He also volunteered with the charity, according to MLFA.

In 2001, the Bush administration designated HLF a “terrorist organization” and froze its assets, saying it sent money to Palestinian zakat committees run by Hamas. These committees collect and distribute donations from community members.

In 2008, five HLF leaders were sentenced to between 15 and 65 years in prison after a trial that some nonprofit watchdogs described as politically motivated and inconsistent with constitutional norms.