New Jersey’s Democratic Governor Mikie Sherrill recently attended a Ramadan celebration at a mosque in Paterson, where an imam has fought against deportation for years amid claims of connections to Hamas.
Cheryl shared a snapshot from her visit to the Passaic County Islamic Center on social media, where she was wearing a hijab and taking selfies. In one of the photos, she’s seen conversing with Imam Mohammad Qatanani, who has been the mosque’s imam for a long time.
She expressed gratitude to the Islamic Center for the invitation, saying, “We wish our Muslim neighbors a safe, joyful, and peaceful Eid al-Fitr” as the holy month of Ramadan draws to a close.
Imam Qatanani, originally from Palestine, has been entangled in a protracted immigration struggle after U.S. officials sought to deport him for allegedly not disclosing ties to Hamas and for his past detention in Israel. He has maintained that the charges are false and that he was detained without being convicted.
According to previous reports, federal authorities began efforts to remove Qatanani from the U.S. in the mid-2000s, claiming he had misrepresented information on his green card application and raised security concerns due to his record in Israel.
In a noteworthy turn of events, an immigration judge ruled in 2008 that the government’s evidence was not credible, discounting Israeli court documents linked to the allegations. The judge found no proof that Qatanani was engaged in terrorism.
The court records mentioned doubts about the reliability of statements attributed to him, suggesting they might have been acquired under duress. Subsequent judgments consistently supported Qatanani’s position.
Finally, a federal appeals court halted his deportation in 2025, asserting that immigration authorities mismanaged the process aimed at revoking his legal status.
The ruling highlighted procedural missteps, with the court determining that federal entities neglected to act within the appropriate timeframe to dispute a significant ruling that allowed Qatanani to attain permanent residency.
Whether Sherrill was aware of Qatanani’s complicated legal history during her visit remains uncertain. Efforts to obtain a comment from the governor’s office were made, but clarity on this matter is still awaited.
