President Donald Trump on Wednesday tweeted that he is barring a US-born former Islamic State propagandist, Hoda Muthana from returning home.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday tweeted that he is barring a US-born former Islamic State propagandist, Hoda Muthana from returning home.
Trump said on Twitter he has “instructed” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “not to allow Hoda Muthana back into the country” which is seen as a break with usual US protocol not to comment on individuals’ immigration issues.
Ms. Hoda Muthana is not a US citizen and will not be admitted into the United States,” Pompeo said in a terse statement. She does not have any legal basis, no valid US passport, no right to a passport, nor any visa to travel to the United States,” he said, urging US citizens not to travel to Syria.
Muthana’s lawyer, Hassan Shilby has however showed a birth certificate that demonstrated she was born in New Jersey in 1994 and said her father had ceased being a diplomat “months and months” before her birth. “She is a US citizen. She had a valid passport. She may have broken the law and, if she has, she’s willing to pay the price,” Shilby told AFP at his office in Tampa.
He said Muthana wanted due process and was willing to go to prison if convicted. “We cannot get to a point where we simply strip citizenship from those who break the law. That’s not what America is about. We have one of the greatest legal systems in the world, and we have to abide by it.”
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