On March 30, on a morning like any other in my hometown of Milwaukee, a man in plain clothes emerged from a car speeding toward me, a handgun visible at his side, and asked, "Are you Salah Sarsour?”

Within minutes, nearly a dozen cars and some 20 agents – masked, plainclothes, one flashing a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement badge – converged on me and informed me that I was under arrest.

I was sure it was a case of mistaken identity.

After all, I have been a legal permanent resident for over 30 years with a clean record here, a business owner deeply connected to my community, and a devoted father of six children and nine grandchildren, all of whom are U.S. citizens.

I was wrong.

In a brazen assault on the First Amendment and an affront to the Constitution, I believe I was targeted, arrested and detained by the Trump administration for speaking out against the ongoing atrocities Israel is committing, just as I and so many others believe that Mahmoud Khalil, Sami Hamdi, Yaacub Ira, Leqaa Kordia and others were before me.

As a national leader supporting some of the largest and longest-standing grassroots organizations for Palestinian rights, my arrest marked a serious escalation in the Trump administration’s repression agenda. This is not just an attack against me and others working for Palestinian freedom; it is an attempt to dismantle the very values we profess as a nation.

Although a judge on June 18 ordered my release, affirming that my speech in support of Palestinian rights is constitutionally protected, my legal battle is far from over. I still face the threat of deportation.

My case is part of a broader retaliatory pattern targeting those who have worked to expose Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. The aim is simple and should give us all pause: to have a chilling effect on constitutionally protected free speech that the government dislikes.

The conditions in the ICE jail in Indiana, where I spent 80 long days, were degrading and dehumanizing.

I was denied appropriate testing and proper nutrition needed for my Type 2 diabetes, losing at least 30 pounds while in custody.

Basic religious accommodations, like halal food and mandatory Friday congregational prayers, were not reasonably provided, and I faced disruptions to and ridicule of my obligatory dawn prayers.

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Aspects of my confinement were hauntingly reminiscent of my experience growing up under a brutal Israeli military occupation in the West Bank, where we became accustomed to violent, humiliating treatment at the hands of Israeli soldiers.

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Why is the Trump administration undermining our constitutional rights to silence criticism of a foreign country and opinions it doesn’t agree with? The erosion of our civil liberties is the real threat facing America today.