President Trump said Wednesday he instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to allow an Alabama woman to return to the U.S. after she joined the Islamic State.
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
Pompeo said earlier Wednesday that Hoda Muthana would not be allowed to return to the U.S. because she is not a citizen, does not have a valid passport, or any visa to travel to the U.S.
According to the New York Times, Muthana had an American passport when she left the U.S. for Turkey and was smuggled into Syria more than 4 years ago.
Her family and her Tampa-based lawyer insist she was born in Hackensack, N.J., in 1994.
Trump’s order comes days after demanding that European countries repatriate and put on trial hundreds of ISIS fighters who have been captured in Syria as the U.S. prepares to withdraw its troops from the country.
“The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial. The Caliphate is ready to fall. The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them,” Trump wrote in a tweet Saturday.
“We do so much, and spend so much – Time for others to step up and do the job that they are so capable of doing. We are pulling back after 100% Caliphate victory!” he said.
The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial. The Caliphate is ready to fall. The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them……..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2019
….The U.S. does not want to watch as these ISIS fighters permeate Europe, which is where they are expected to go. We do so much, and spend so much – Time for others to step up and do the job that they are so capable of doing. We are pulling back after 100% Caliphate victory!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2019
Europe has so far been reluctant to take back their citizens over potential legal challenges.
Muthana surrendered last month with her young son and has been held in a detainee camp in northeastern Syria.
“I realized how I didn’t appreciate or maybe even really understand how important the freedoms that we have in America are. I do now,” she wrote to her lawyer. “To say that I regret my past words, any pain that I caused my family and any concerns I would cause my country would be hard for me to really express properly.”
