ACLU of Illinois attorney Sam Cole discusses the detention and release of Islamic Society of Milwaukee President Salah Sarsour, who was held for 80 days despite having a green card. Tami Jackson, a policy analyst with the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities, explains how Medicaid eligibility changes taking effect in January 2027 will require many enrollees to work 80 hours a month. Jon Jarosh of Destination Door County describes what fewer seasonal workers on H-2B temporary visas has meant for seasonal employers in the vacation region. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist James Causey considers what Giannis Antetokounmpo’s departure means for the city.

Sam Cole
Attorney, ACLU of Illinois

• Salah Sarsour, an immigrant from Jordan who is president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, was arrested by ICE on March 30 and subsequently held in detention in Indiana. Attorneys for Sarsour called for him to be released, citing his diabetes and criticizing the level of medical care in detention. Following an order by a federal judge on June 18, Sarsour was released and returned to his family in Wisconsin. A former immigration judge, Cole said ICE’s detention of Sarsour was unlike anything he had seen in his nine years on the bench. As a member of the legal team for the longtime green card holder, Cole argued the government is targeting Sarsour over his political speech.
• Cole: “I was an immigration judge in the Chicago Immigration Court for nine years, and I handled, actually, a detained docket. That’s a docket of individuals who are in immigration custody, so very similar to the situation that Mr. Sarsour was in. And Mr. Sarsour’s case is, in fact, in the Chicago Immigration Court. And I can tell you for one, I’ve never seen anything like this at all.”
• The federal government alleges Sarsour committed crimes in Israel more than three decades before he came to the United States, which he denies, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he “poses an adverse consequence to foreign policy considerations.” However, Sarsour is vocal about the actions of Israel in Gaza and the treatment of Palestinians, which his supporters and attorneys point to as a reason he was arrested, detained and slated for deportation.
• Cole: “Mr. Sarsour, as a long time permanent resident of the United States, has the same First Amendment rights to speak and to engage in political activity and political activism that essentially, you and I do as citizens of the United States. And so what’s really happening is the government is targeting him because they don’t like his speech.”

Tami Jackson
Policy analyst, Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities

• Medicaid work requirements taking effect in January 2027 that were instituted as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will require many enrollees to work, volunteer or attend school 80 hours a month in order to receive coverage. Jackson warned that people who should qualify as exempt may struggle to prove that status and will lose access to health care.
• Jackson: “Two-thirds of the people who are in a Medicaid program are already working. So, you know, for a lot of people, this now becomes a documentation problem to prove what they already have been doing. And for other people who are working part time, you know, you now have a group of people who has to do more to keep their coverage. What we know from other states that have tried similar experiments in the past is that work requirements don’t actually lead to more people working. What they do lead to is more people making paperwork mistakes, or states making paperwork mistakes that cost people their health care coverage.”

Jon Jarosh
Chief Communications Officer, Destination Door County

• Door County experiences a massive wave of tourism every summer as vacationers travel to northeast Wisconsin from around the state and region. This seasonal economy leans heavily on international workers, primarily college students on J-1 summer work travel visas, with a smaller pool of workers holding H-2B visas that employers use to keep positions staffed later in the season. A decrease in these types of workers, Jarosh said, has strained businesses during a record-breaking tourism year.
• Jarosh: “The J-1 visas this year, we’re probably going to be in the neighborhood of about 560 of the summer work travel students. And last year, I think we had maybe 85 to 90 H-2B visa workers that were in the county. So again, much smaller numbers, but increasingly, businesses have looked to that as an alternative to make sure that they have coverage longer in the season instead of that three months that those, you know, collegiate students that are here on the J-1 visa can stay.”

James Causey
Columnist, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

• The Milwaukee Bucks traded Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat in a deal revealed on June 22. The basketball superstar built a 13-year tenure with the team, and in 2021 delivered its first NBA championship in 50 years. A columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Ideas Lab, Causey said the trade marks a significant loss for the community.
• Causey: “Giannis was our son. I mean, he came to us as a young man, very young, and the city wrapped his arms around him, and he embraced us. He was our unicorn. He was a guy who got us a championship. He was a guy who — a funny story about him. One time he was trying to get to the arena and he got lost, and somebody saw him on the side of the road and picked him up and dropped him off. That’s who Giannis is and that’s who he was to us. So losing Giannis is like losing a big part of our city.”

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