I have instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and he fully agrees, not to allow Hoda Muthana back into the Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2019
Hoda Muthana, 24, told ABC News from her refugee camp in northern Syria that she was brainwashed by ISIS and wishes to return to the US. She added that she could undergo psychological counseling if returned to the US.
Muthana grew up in Alabama, and left the US traveling to Syria to join ISIS in 2014. She spread propaganda for ISIS on Twitter, and encouraged her followers to commit murder on American public holidays.
“Go on drive-bys and spill all of their blood, or rent a big truck and drive all over them. Veterans, Patriot, Memorial etc Day parades. Kill them,” Muthana tweeted.
Muthana told ABC News that she was married to three ISIS fighters. Her first two husbands were killed in battle and she has no idea where her third husband is.
She explained the “pairing-off” process with ISIS fighters, saying that 200 young brides were locked in a room and instructed to choose husbands from pictures they were shown.
”When I left to Syria I was a naive, angry, and arrogant young woman. To say that I regret my past words, any pain that I caused my family and any concerns that I would cause my country would be hard for me to really express properly,” Muthana said in a statement to CNN.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Muthana was not a US citizen and would not be admitted into the United States.
“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,” Pompeo said in a statement.
The action followed Britain’s move to revoke the citizenship of a teenager after she joined Islamic State, citing security concerns.
Muthana’s father was a Yemeni diplomat, working in the United States. Children born in the United States to accredited diplomats, under the 14th Amendment, do not acquire citizenship since they are not “born ... subject to the jurisdiction of the United States,” according to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Hassan Shibly, a representative for the Muthana family and a staff member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, tweeted that she was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, in October 1994, months after her father informed the U.S. government he was no longer a diplomat.
Charles Swift, director of the Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America, said her father’s revocation of his diplomatic status meant Hoda Muthana was a US citizen. Swift said he planned to file a lawsuit over her case.