Detained Texas man is a local leader. Why is ICE calling him a threat? | Opinion
For more than 30 years, Marwan Marouf has peacefully lived out the values we claim to cherish. As a Garland resident, he has raised his children as Americans, built a successful business from the ground up, created jobs, supported families in need, paid taxes and given back generously to his community as a youth director at the Muslim American Society in Richardson.
He is not just the fabric of our community — he is part of our collective story, a testament to the American dream. Now, he is being treated like a threat to the very community he has uplifted. Despite his record of good faith and community service, Marouf, 54, has sat behind bars in an immigration detention center since Sept. 22.
As a state representative, attorney and proud Texan, I have sworn to uphold the values of justice, fairness, and compassion that define our great state. Yet I am deeply troubled by the continued detention of a man whose life embodies those very values. His children, all U.S. citizens, wait in anguish, uncertain when or if he will be allowed to return home. To detain a man like Marouf under these circumstances is not only unnecessary, it is profoundly unjust.
We must be clear: Justice without compassion is no justice at all.
The purpose of immigration detention is not to punish — it is to ensure compliance with lawful proceedings. We can uphold the law without losing sight of humanity.
Marouf, a Palestinian, immigrated to our country legally on a student visa and continued to live, study and work under valid visas for decades. He earned degrees from Louisiana State University and the University of Texas at Dallas before building a career as a telecom engineer. Despite his successful pursuit of the American dream, U.S. immigration officials denied his second request for a green card the same day ICE took him into custody.
The Department of Homeland Security is now seeking to deport him for volunteering and donating money to support an orphan through the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in the 1990s. The U.S. government decided after passage of the USA Patriot Act that the foundation’s purely humanitarian aid to the Palestinian Zakat committees was material support of an undesignated terrorist organization.
This was the first time the U.S. classified indirect support, such as humanitarian aid, to be material support of terrorists. There is no moral or legal justification for detaining a man who poses no danger, no flight risk and whose entire life is rooted in this country.
When a person like Marouf, with deep ties, a spotless record and decades of contribution, is treated as disposable, it sends a chilling message: that no amount of service, no measure of belonging can guarantee fairness. It undermines public trust and erodes confidence in the fairness of our institutions. The cruelty of separating him from his family serves no purpose other than to break the spirit of good people who still believe in the promise of America.
That is not the country I know, and it is not the Texas I represent.
We can and must do better. I call on DHS and ICE to release Marouf immediately on humanitarian and legal grounds while his case proceeds. His continued confinement does not make our communities safer. It only inflicts needless harm on a man and family who are part of the fabric of our community.
Marouf’s story is not unique. Every day, families across this country live with the fear that a knock on the door could mean a loved one taken away. It does not have to be this way.
We must demand that our immigration system be reformed. The way our nation enforces immigration laws must reflect our highest values — humanity, consistency, and respect for individual dignity.
We must remember that behind every case number is a human being, a family and a story.
I urge federal authorities to act swiftly to correct this wrong. Let Marouf return home. Let him be with his family while his legal case moves forward. Let us, as Americans, live up to our promise of justice tempered by mercy.
When we allow injustice to happen to one of us, we all lose something essential — our humanity. Texas is better than this. America is better than this. It’s time to bring Marwan Marouf home.
Rep. Salman Bhojani a Euless lawyer, represents District 92 in the Texas House.
