US-born woman Hoda Muthana, who joined Islamic State in Syria, barred from returning
- US officials contend that Hoda Muthana isn’t a citizen and has no legal basis to travel to the US
- Muthana is now in a refugee camp in Syria along with others who fled Islamic State, and says she made a mistake in joining the group
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was barring a US-born former Islamic State propagandist from returning home, making the highly unusual case that she is not a US citizen.
Trump’s refusal to admit 24-year-old Hoda Muthana comes just as he is pressing Europeans to repatriate their own Islamic State fighters and is likely to face legal challenges, with US citizenship extremely difficult to lose.
Trump said on Twitter he has “instructed” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “not to allow Hoda Muthana back into the country” – 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 added.
The US generally grants citizenship to everyone born on its soil and the Alabama-raised Muthana is believed to have travelled to Syria on a US passport.
But a US official said a later investigation showed that she had not been entitled to her passport, adding: “Ms Muthana’s citizenship has not been revoked because she was never a citizen.”