Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a categorical no to any suggestions that an ISIS bride who fought American forces will be returning to the United States.
Pompeo told “Fox News Sunday” that Hoda Muthana, 24, is a “non-citizen terrorist” who “is not coming back.”
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Muthana’s father, Ahmed Ali Muthana, has taken the Trump administration to court over the matter, arguing that the woman is a citizen who deserves to return home. She left the U.S. about four years ago and joined ISIS as both a bride and mercenary. (RELATED: Navy Vet Sues To Allow ISIS Bride To Return To The US)
But Pompeo rejected that suggestion because Muthana’s daughter has demonstrated that she is a threat to the United States by posing a danger to American soldiers in theater.
“She’s a non-citizen terrorist; she has no legal basis for a claim of U.S. citizenship,” Pompeo told Fox. “She’s not coming back to the United States to create the risk that someday she’d return to the battlefield and continue to put at risk American people, American kids, American boys and girls that were sent to help defeat ISIS — she put them at risk, she’s not a U.S. citizen, she’s not coming back.”
Although Muthana was born in Hackensack, N.J. in 1994, she was born to a foreign diplomat and therefore would not be granted automatic citizenship as a result of being born on American soil, Fox News noted. (RELATED: ISIS Bride: ‘Racism’ Radicalized Me)
Even though Muthana’s attorney is disputing his client’s diplomatic status at the time of the daughter’s birth, Pompeo told Fox News that the administration is fairly certain it is on solid legal ground. “There’s litigation ongoing. Here’s what I can tell you: We have a strong legal basis for our claim she’s not a citizen, and she’s not coming back.”
President Donald Trump has also made it clear that he does not want to see Muthana back in the United States, as he tweeted that he had told Pompeo to block any move by the woman to return.