Hoda Muthana was born in the US. In 2014, as a 20-year-old student at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, she told her parents she was going on a field trip to Atlanta; instead, she withdrew from school, used the reimbursed tuition to buy a plane ticket, flew to Turkey, made her way to Syria, and joined ISIS. Now she wants to come home. But the US doesn’t want to take her back — and it claims it doesn’t have to. While in Syria, Muthana used her social media accounts to call for the murder of Americans. “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..go on drive by’s + spill all of their blood or rent a big truck n drive all over them. Kill them,” Muthana tweeted from her now-suspended Twitter account, according to a 2015 profile of her by BuzzFeed News. But that was then. Now, with ISIS in shreds, she says she’s prepared to face trial in the United States for her actions. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, however, has declared that Muthana was never actually a US citizen — and that, therefore, there’s no legal obligation for the US to take her back, even if it’s to put her on trial. (On Wednesday, after Pompeo’s statement, President Donald Trump tweeted that he had “instructed” Pompeo not to let Muthana back into the US.) Muthana’s father, Ahmed Ali Muthana, is suing to allow her to come home, claiming that both she and her 18-month-old son are in fact US citizens and that they are being deprived of their constitutional rights. The question of whether Muthana actually is a citizen or not turns out to be fairly complicated, and the US government’s position has changed over time. At issue is whether she was “subject to the jurisdiction of the United States” at birth, a status that her father claims she holds and that the federal government, starting in 2016, has claimed she does not. Whether Hoda Muthana is a citizen or not depends on whether her father was still a diplomat when she was born Hoda Muthana told NBC News that her citizenship has never been questioned before, and that “[w]hen I tried filing for a passport it was very easy. It came in 10 days.” But that’s not true. Muthana was issued a passport as a US citizen, that’s true. But the government challenged her citizenship before giving her a passport. And in 2016, after she’d burned her passport upon joining ISIS — “Bonfire soon, no need for these anymore, alhamdulliah [thanks be to God],” she tweeted, with a photo of her and several other women’s Western passports — the Obama administration officially declared the passport and her citizenship had never been valid to begin with. The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution provides birthright citizenship to everyone born on US soil and “subject to the jurisdiction of” the United States. While there’s an argument (somewhat on the fringe) that “jurisdiction” doesn’t apply to unauthorized immigrants living in the US, everyone agrees that it doesn’t apply to babies born to foreign diplomats. Diplomatic immunity exempts the diplomat — and, generally, his or her family — from US jurisdiction, the argument goes, so children born in the US to foreign diplomats are citizens of their parents’ home countries, not US citizens. Hoda Muthana’s father, Ahmed Ali Muthana, came to the US from Yemen in 1990 to serve as a diplomat representing his home country at the United Nations, whose headquarters are located in New York City. However, he lost that job — and thus his diplomatic immunity — as the result of the Yemeni civil war in the mid-1990s. The question is exactly when he lost his diplomatic privileges — and whether that happened before Hoda was born, on October 28, 1994, or after. The US government has told Ahmed Ali Muthana (according to his lawsuit) that its records show he held diplomatic status until February 6, 1995 — that is, until after Hoda’s birth — and therefore that Hoda was born while he was still a diplomat and thus is not a US citizen, but a Yemeni one. Ahmed Ali Muthana, on the other hand, claims in a lawsuit that he surrendered his diplomatic identity card on June 2, 1994 — months before his daughter was born. Legal experts I spoke to said that that wouldn’t necessarily mean he officially lost his diplomatic status on that date, though. Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said that under US law, ex-diplomats who are still in the country enjoy some “residual immunity” while they pack their bags and prepare to head back home. But the Muthanas weren’t just wrapping up their affairs before returning to Yemen; they were settling in the country for good. Hoda Muthana’s mother had already applied for a green card in early 1994, based on her father’s US citizenship. And both of Hoda’s parents got green cards after she was born. Hoda could have gotten one as a dependent of her parents, but since the family thought she was a US citizen by birth, they didn’t apply for one. The discrepancy first came up in 2004 (per the lawsuit), when Ahmed Ali Muthana applied for a passport for Hoda. When the government said its records showed he was a diplomat when Hoda was born, Muthana obtained a letter from the US Mission to the UN declaring that their records showed he was officially “noticed” as a diplomat through September 1, 1994. Hoda’s passport was subsequently granted, and renewed 10 years later — right before she left the country to join ISIS. The Obama administration revoked Muthana’s passport, but the Trump administration’s declarations raise more questions In January 2016, the US government sent the Muthana household a letter addressed to Hoda officially revoking her US passport. The letter claimed that the passport had been issued in error, because there was “no evidence” that she was actually a US citizen by birth.<doc-sep>An Alabama woman turned ISIS bride whom President Trump says won’t be allowed to re-enter the United States told reporters she anticipates “no problem” returning to the country, according to a report from NBC News. “I know in fact that I was a citizen,” Hoda Muthana told NBC News. "When I tried filing for a passport it was very easy. It came in 10 days. So, I thought I didn’t have a problem, and I’m sure there is no problem and I know my lawyer hopefully is working on it and he will win the case.” Late Thursday night, her father filed a lawsuit on behalf of she and her young son asking the U.S. to recognize her citizenship, and thus, her son’s citizenship by being the natural child of an American citizen. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said she had “no legal basis” on which to claim her citizenship. U.S. officials are claiming Muthana is not a citizen based on a technicality related to her father’s position as a diplomat in the months immediately before and after she was born in New Jersey in October 1994. Muthana went to Syria to join ISIS in November 2014. She escaped and was captured by Kurdish forces and is currently being held at an al-Hawl refugee camp in northern Syria. Earlier this week, she began publicly pleading to come home back to the United States. She says she regrets leaving and joining ISIS.<doc-sep>In the days since Hoda Muthana, the young woman from Hoover who went to Syria to join ISIS, began pleading to come home, there has been no shortage of questions and debate about her citizenship and what the U.S. should do if she returns. Muthana, now 24, left her home in Alabama in 2014 and went to join the Islamic State, known as ISIS, Syria. After more than four years with ISIS, she wants to come home, citing a change of heart. She said she was “young and ignorant” when she decided to leave the U.S. “I hope America doesn’t think I’m a threat to them and I hope they can accept me,” she said in an interview with ABC News. However, many Americans have expressed no interest in welcoming her back to the U.S. Hoover City Councilman John Lyda said she would not be welcome back to Hoover if she comes back to the United States. He called Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement declaring Muthana not a citizen of the United States “the right call.” The right call. Thankful to see this statement from @secpompeo that she is not welcome in the U.S. She’s certainly not welcome back in the @CityofHoover as far as I’m concerned. https://t.co/qKJpQbJ9SI — John B Lyda (@johnlyda) February 21, 2019 “I’m proud to say she’s not welcome back in Hoover,“ Lyda told AL.com during a phone interview Thursday morning. Lyda serves as the city councilman for Place 3. "The extreme view Hoda has espoused is not at all representative of the city of Hoover, Alabama or its citizens. It’s uncommon and it’s concerning.” Lyda says he’s heard from many Hoover residents, many of whom he says agree with his sentiments on the matter. “Her child, that’s the saddest part of the story,” he said. “She is caught up in a decision she made at 20 years old and now she will have to live with the consequences of that.” He said the extremist views she adopted when she left the country for Syria don’t reflect those of Hoover or of its citizens. For many Hoover residents, the news of a young woman from the city joining ISIS was a bit jarring. Jordan LaPorta, who graduated from Hoover High School the same year as Muthana, said many students were also surprised. LaPorta, who is now 24 and is in his second year of law school at the University of Alabama, said he knew Muthana from school. Hoda Muthana, seated in the foreground, participates in a broadcasting class at Hoover High School in Hoover, Ala., on Aug. 18, 2011. (Beverly Taylor/The Birmingham News) He admits he wasn’t a close friend of Muthana’s but said he knew other people who were. But even though they weren’t close friends, he said he enough about her to know there were not “red flags” indicating she supported extremist Islamic views. “Even they [the people who were close to her] were kind of shocked. This one girl was just completely floored. Everyone was really sad about it too,” he told AL.com during a phone interview Thursday afternoon. “With something like this. Terrorism? You think it’s more happening overseas or it’s happening in the major cities of America like New York, Chicago or LA. When something like this is tied to your community, it makes it feel a lot more real,” he said. With the news of her desire to come back to America, LaPorta said he was “immediately conflicted” about it. “It does seem like she has had a change of heart. With the campaigns the U.S. government has waged against this organization, I’m surprised she is still alive. But, dang, not only is she still alive, but trying to speak out. It’s just crazy to me,” he said. For LaPorta, the issue of her 18-month-old son complicates the issue. “She definitely should have to answer for what she did, but I feel terrible for that kid, who has done nothing but be born to the wrong family in the wrong place. It makes it more complicated,” he said. “She should be able to come back for the sake of her child, but immediately face trial.” State Rep. Gary Palmer, like Lyda, agreed with Pompeo on the issue. “Those who betray the country and fight for ISIS have to suffer the consequences for their actions. Secretary Pompeo has expressed that she has no legal basis to return to the U.S. and I agree with him. She forfeited the privileges of citizenship when she provided aid to radical extremists seeking to kill Americans,” Palmer said in an emailed statement to AL.com. Hassan Shibly, an attorney for Muthana and her family, insists she is a citizen of the U.S. and had a valid passport when she left the United States in 2014. “The Trump administration continues its attempts to wrongfully strip citizens of their citizenship,” Shibly told AL.com Wednesday. “Hoda Muthana had a valid US passport and is a citizen. She was born in Hackensack, NJ in October 1994, months after her father stopped being a diplomat.” Pompeo argues she has no “legal basis” on which to claim her citizenship. “Ms. Hoda Muthana is not a U.S. citizen and will not be admitted into the United States,” Pompeo said. “She does not have any legal basis, no valid U.S. passport, no right to a passport nor any visa to travel to the United States.” Ultimately, Lyda said the issue of her citizenship will likely be sorted out in court. “I think this is the first step in a lengthy legal process,” Lyda said. Other prominent figures, such as the mother of James Foley, the freelance journalist who was beheaded by ISIS militants in 2014 while he was covering the Syrian Civil War, have called for Muthana to face the justice system. Speaking on Fox News, Diana Foley said it was important that Muthana and “the many thousands of ISIS fighters who have promoted terrorism...be held accountable and brought to justice…I feel that is vital.”<doc-sep>Now, she says she is prepared to come home and face the consequences of her actions, so that her son can grow up as an American citizen. “I know I’ve ruined my future and my son’s future and I deeply, deeply regret it,” she told the Guardian, which reported that she was the lone American of about 1,500 foreign women and children in the camp in northeastern Syria. Two hundred miles away, U.S.-backed forces were surrounding the final enclave of the Islamic State, whose reign of terror Muthana had once cheered on social media.<doc-sep>
AL-HOUL CAMP, Syria — An American-born ISIS bride told NBC News on Friday that she anticipates "no problem" in returning to the U.S. despite the Trump administration's insistence that she won't be allowed into the country. Hoda Muthana, 24, left the U.S. to join the Islamic State in Syria in 2014. She is now staying in a refugee camp with her 18-month-old son after fleeing the remnants of the caliphate. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to refuse her entry. Pompeo told NBC's "Today" on Thursday that Muthana is not a citizen and will not be admitted to the country. Muthana, who was born in New Jersey and lived in Alabama, and her family are now suing the Trump administration in an effort to allow her to return. "I know in fact that I was a citizen," she told NBC News. "When I tried filing for a passport it was very easy. It came in 10 days. So, I thought I didn’t have a problem, and I’m sure there is no problem and I know my lawyer hopefully is working on it and he will win the case.” When asked what she expects will happen if she is allowed to return to the U.S., Muthana replied, "Of course I’ll be given jail time." Muthana is the daughter of a former Yemeni diplomat. The family's lawyers claim that the government determined she is not a citizen because her father held diplomatic status at the time of her birth in Hackensack, New Jersey. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a person born in the U.S. to an accredited foreign diplomatic officer is not subject to U.S. law and is not automatically considered an American citizen at birth. Hoda Muthana with her son. Ivor Prickett/The New York Times / Redux Pictures The Obama administration was first to determine she was not a citizen and notified her family they would revoke her passport in January 2016. The family's lawyers are now arguing that Muthana's father was no longer a diplomat when she was born and that she held a legitimate U.S. passport at the time she left for Syria. Watch more on this story on "NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt" tonight Muthana spoke to NBC News inside her tent in a section of the al-Houl Camp in northeast Syria reserved for foreign ISIS families. There were no officials from the camp present during the interview. The site was crowded with nearly 1,600 people — all women and children — from 48 countries, according to statistics provided by the camp’s director. Muthana said she fears for her life, not from camp guards, but from other ISIS wives who might seek reprisal for her speaking out against the group. Muthana described herself as a former Islamic “radical” who has changed her beliefs. She added that she deeply regrets traveling to ISIS territory and that she was “brainwashed” online.