On September 22, 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) turned down Marwan Marouf’s green card application, citing concerns from incidents that happened over a decade ago, as noted by the Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA). On the same day, ICE agents detained Marouf due to alleged national security threats and personally delivered the denial documentation to him. While the media attempts to paint Marouf as a “beloved community leader,” the actual facts recorded in public documents challenge this portrayal.

Marwan Marouf, a Jordanian national, came to the United States on a student visa in the early 1990s. After his student status lapsed, his private employer submitted an H‑1B visa application on his behalf, which was approved by USCIS, allowing him to work legally in the U.S.

The Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA) reported that Marouf has sought permanent residency with his employer’s assistance for 15 years. MLFA’s Immigration Litigation Department has represented Marouf for the last six years in his efforts to secure a green card. Marouf’s first application was rejected in 2020, prompting him to reapply. However, federal reviews consistently delayed his applications, raising questions about his affiliations with charity and non-profit organizations.

Marouf has long been involved with the Muslim American Society (MAS), serving on its board as head of public relations and fundraising director. While MAS refers to itself as a “dynamic charitable, religious, social, cultural, and educational organization,” the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs contends that it’s a “U.S. Muslim Brotherhood organization,” established in 1993 and expanded into a national entity with more than 50 local branches. The Discover the Networks site references a 2004 Chicago Tribune article confirming MAS’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Ahmad Elkadi and Mohammed Mahdi Akef acknowledged to the Chicago Tribune their roles in founding MAS as Muslim Brotherhood members, and even MAS Secretary General Shaker Elsayed conceded in 2004 that members of the Muslim Brotherhood established the organization.

The Muslim Brotherhood is classified as a terrorist group by Bahrain, Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the UAE. Senator Ted Cruz has pushed Congress since 2015 to label the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, though four bills he introduced (in 2015, 2017, 2020, and 2021) have not passed into law. On July 16, 2025, Cruz submitted the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act for a fifth time. On August 13, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned that his department was moving toward designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Rubio highlighted that each Muslim Brotherhood branch needs individual designation due to their legal complexity, as there are numerous branches.

Founded in 1992 in Dallas, Texas, by brothers Ghassan, Bayan, Ihsan, Hazim, and Basman Elashi, InfoCom Corporation has close ties to Marwan Marouf, who is Bayan Elashi’s brother-in-law. In 1999, the FBI initiated a criminal probe into InfoCom, suspecting it functioned as a covert front for the Hamas terrorist organization. Formed in 1987, Hamas’s first Political Bureau chairman, Mousa Abu Marzook, married Nadia Elashi, a cousin of the five brothers who founded InfoCom. The FBI discovered evidence that Marzook invested $150,000 in InfoCom in 1992, and his wife, Nadia Marzook, contributed $250,000 in 1993. The FBI conducted a raid on the InfoCom Dallas offices on September 5, 2001.

 The five Elashi brothers were arrested and charged with the following:

• Illegal exports related to Libyan sanctions.
• Making false statements on Shipper’s Export Declarations.
• Dealing in the property of known terrorist Mousa Abu Marzook.
• Conspiracy to violate export laws and engage in prohibited transactions with known terrorist Mousa Abu Marzook.
• Money laundering.

Following the arrests, Marouf defended the family, telling the press that the Elashis were unfairly targeted because they were Muslim and supported Palestine.

On January 25, 2006, Hazim Elashi was sentenced to 66 months’ imprisonment and Ihsan Elashi was sentenced to 72 months’ imprisonment. On October 13, 2006, the remaining brothers, Ghassan and Basman, were sentenced to 80 months, while Bayan, InfoCom’s CEO and Marouf’s brother-in-law, got the longest sentence at 84 months. U.S. Attorney Richard Roper stated, “Those who knowingly violate the laws prohibiting any transactions with such assets can expect to face the prospect of prosecution and a lengthy incarceration.”

The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) was founded in 1989 in Los Angeles by Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu Baker, and Mohammad El‑Mezain. Ghassan served as chairman of HLF. Three years later, in 1992, HLF moved to the Dallas area and set up shop in offices adjacent to the newly created InfoCom company. In 1994, the FBI opened an investigation into HLF on suspicion of financial ties to Hamas. Three months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. Treasury Department designated HLF as a “Specially Designated Terrorist” group. On December 4, 2001, the FBI raided the HLF offices and arrested the three founders of HLF along with two principal fundraisers, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh.

 The five individuals were charged with the following:

• Acting for or on behalf of Hamas.
• Maintaining financial connections to Hamas since HLF’s creation.
• Meeting and coordinating with Hamas leaders.
• Funding Hamas-controlled charitable organizations.
• Providing financial support to orphans and families of Hamas martyrs and prisoners.
• Operating HLF as a fundraiser for Hamas in the United States.
• Allowing HLF’s Jerusalem office to act on behalf of Hamas.
• Concealing or transferring assets that the government had frozen under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

Evidence presented at trial proved that HLF and the five defendants transferred $12.4 million to Hamas to support its goal of destroying Israel and creating an Islamic Palestinian state “from the river to the sea” by engaging in violent jihad. Further evidence was also presented at trial proving that all five defendants had relatives who were members of Hamas.

Ghassan Elashi and his four codefendants were convicted on all 108 counts in what still is the largest terrorism-financing trial in U.S. history. On May 27, 2009, Abdulrahman Odeh and Mohammad El‑Mezain were sentenced to 15 years each. Mufid Abdulqader was sentenced to 20 years. Shukri Abu Baker and Ghassan Elashi were sentenced to 65 years in jail each. Each defendant appealed his conviction, and all the appeals were unsuccessful.

During the trial, the FBI was able to prove that the Muslim American Society (MAS), for which Marwan Marouf is the fundraising director, was connected to Hamas’s U.S. support network. In 2014, the United Arab Emirates designated MAS and 81 other Muslim networks as terrorist organizations. The UAE so far remains the only country bold enough to declare MAS a terrorist organization.

Court records and video evidence document and expose the Muslim American Society’s associations with Islamic extremism. On June 25, 2003, MAS communications director Randall Royer was arrested and charged with conspiring with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based Sunni terrorist group. The two specific charges were: “aiding and abetting the use and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, and aiding and abetting the carrying of an explosive during the commission of a felony.” On April 9, 2004, Royer was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

In August 2007, Virginia Democratic Governor Tim Kaine appointed former MAS president, Esam Omeish, to the Virginia Commission on Immigration. According to the Virginia Administration of the Government website, the purpose of the Commission was to “study, report, and make recommendations to address the costs and benefits of immigration on the Commonwealth.” Shortly after Omeish’s appointment, two videos surfaced exposing Omeish’s call for jihad against Israel.

On December 12, 2000, Omeish gave a speech in Lafayette Park, Washington, D.C., for the annual Muslim Quds Day (English: Jerusalem Day). Omeish was recorded on video saying, “We the Muslims of the Washington metropolitan area are here today in sub-freezing temperatures to tell our Brothers and Sisters in Filasteen that you have learned the way, that you have known that the Jihad way is the way to liberate your land.”

On August 12, 2006, Omeish was back in Lafayette Park for another speech protesting the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, which started on July 12, 2006, when Hezbollah invaded Israel from the north, killing three IDF soldiers and taking two other IDF soldiers hostage. Omeish was recorded on video saying, “Israeli War Machine is indeed criminal and must end.”

On Thursday, September 27, 2007, Tim Kaine was forced to ask for Omeish’s resignation from the Commission. After his resignation, Omeish maintained close ties with then-President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry. White House logs document that Omeish visited nine times while Obama was president, including a visit on December 13, 2013, when he posed for a photo with Obama.

The Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA), which is financing the defense of Marwan Marouf, has a long documented record of funding defendants in terror-related cases. MLFA helped fund the defense of the five defendants in the HLF trial documented above. On July 20, 2020, 11 years after the HLF convictions, MLFA hosted Sarah AbdulQader, the daughter of convicted terrorist Mufid Abdulqader, for “The Show About Justice.”

Tune in Tuesdays at 5 pm for The Show About Justice! This week, MLFA’s Ayman Taleb speaks with Sarah AbdulQader about her father, one of five individuals targeted at the Holy Land Foundation after 9/11. Our attorneys recently filed an Emergency Motion for his release. Stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/jolhk1uMdZ

— Muslim Legal Fund (@MLFA) July 20, 2020

MLFA also funded the defense of Sami Al-Arian, who, on April 14, 2006, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make and receive contributions to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is the second largest terrorist organization in Gaza after Hamas. On May 1, 2006, Al-Arian was sentenced to 57 months in prison.

On May 13, 1996, 17-year-old American David Boim was shot dead at a bus stop in the West Bank by two Hamas gunmen, Amjad Hinawi and Khalil Tawfik Al‑Sharif. David’s parents, Stanley Boim and Joyce Boim, filed a civil suit on May 18, 2017, under the Anti‑Terrorism Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2333(a), against the group American Muslims for Palestine (Boim v. American Muslims for Palestine, No. 17‑cv‑03591). Boim’s parents allege the group American Muslims for Palestine provided material support and resources to Hamas directly related to the death of their son.

The Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America (CLCMA) is representing American Muslims for Palestine in the civil suit. CLCMA was founded by MLFA on July 14, 2014, to provide legal defense to Muslims in terror-related cases. On May 16, 2018, the Middle East Forum published an article linking the MLFA to its defense of Muslim terrorists.

In summary, the public record establishes the following facts. Marwan Marouf is the head of public relations and the fundraising director for MAS, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the UAE. The MAS has organizational ties to the terrorist organizations, the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Marouf is the brother-in-law of convicted terrorist Bayan Elashi, who has ties to HLF and Hamas. MLFA has a record of defending and funding individuals convicted or accused in terrorism‑related cases. MLFA is defending Marouf. Thus, ICE’s detention of Marwan Marouf appears to be linked to national security concerns and places serious doubt on the claim that Marouf is simply a “beloved community leader.”

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