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ISIS Mother Pleads to Return—to Alabama
We knew this would happen. All the men and women who were excited about fighting for ISIS wanted to be involved with the ISIS cause and they went to fight in Syria. And now one of them wants to come home with her child. 
Hoda Muthana went to Syria in 2014; she was one of 1,500 foreign women and the only American staying in a Kurdish-run refugee camp. She was married three times and widowed twice. And now she has an 18-month old son. She is asking to return to the United States.
Her attorney claims she was brainwashed by ISIS. She wanted to “spill American blood”; she was known online as a prominent spokesperson for ISIS. Now she says that joining ISIS “was a big mistake.”
She told The Guardian that her parents were very conservative and limited her freedom in Alabama. She claims that contributed to her radicalization.
In a letter obtained by ABC News, these were the words she wrote:
Being where I was and seeing the ppl [sic] around me scared me because I realized I didn’t want to be a part of this. My beliefs weren’t the same as theirs. In my quiet moments, in between bombings, starvation, cold and fear I would look at my beautiful little boy and know that I didn’t belong here and neither did he. I would think sometimes of my family, my friends and the life that I knew and 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. 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.
I think her choices were unwise and irresponsible. She has now put her own life and that of her child’s potentially in danger from Islamist radicals. We don’t know if she has outgrown her brainwashing. Would we be safe if we admitted her to the U.S.? What about her child?
My heart goes out to her and I say no. You can’t return.
Published in Islamist Terrorism
I understand the sentiment for sure. Still, I haven’t quite made up my mind on this. I have to say I lean towards ‘yes’ though. Surely, there must be a way to allow her and pay for her crime(s) like any other criminal. If she had joined a gang in the US, did equally terrible things and was arrested, wouldn’t there be a way to one day have paid off her debt to society and return to it? I can think of a few reasons why that’s not a direct comparison but I still don’t have a definitive opinion on it.
Thanks for commenting, @chrishutch13. I think a difference to consider between her and other criminals is that she joined forces that oppose the United States. I don’t know if that qualifies her as an enemy combatant. (Maybe someone can answer that.) She committed crimes against the U.S. and urged others to do the same. @buckpasser mentioned GITMO; that might be the solution, but we’d be paying for that, too. It’s an ugly situation.
I agree but we need to figure out what to do with the kid – he’s an innocent American citizen.
What’s tough, @bethanymandel, if we don’t bring her back, do we have anything to say about her kid? And if she does return, can she be forced to relinquish custody? I feel so sorry for the little guy.
Or, perhaps not. It seems that there are a few bureaucratic hurdles that were (I would be willing to wager) overlooked in this case:
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/while-abroad/birth-abroad.html.
Yes, I am super sensitive to the treason aspect of it. I just found out a few days ago a woman I went to DLI with in the late 90s turned: https://news.clearancejobs.com/2019/02/17/what-motivated-monica-witt-to-commit-treason-on-behalf-of-iran/. I still work in the SOF and intel community as a contractor. So, I definitely don’t have a lot of tolerance but I guess my hesitance here deals with a person having the opportunity to be able to repent. There have been others, like Ana Montes, who have also betrayed us and was responsible for the death of American lives but will still be able to return to American society after 25 years.
Oh hell no. She renounced her US citizenship. Child was not born on US soil so no birthright BS.
If he grows up and is a decent human he can apply for a visa like anyone else.
I think two points are being missed or misinterpreted by some of you:
1) I don’t think those who claim the child isn’t an American citizen know that to be true. I don’t know for sure either, but I suspect they are wrong. In any event, whether the child is or isn’t an American is a technical legal question to be resolved. Your revulsion at its mother’s choices is not a legal resolution and might well be leading you in the wrong direction.
2) I think we also don’t know what the mother did. Someone suggested “only if she gets life.” Do we know that? Again, we punish people for actual crimes, not just for shocking or pissing us off. The length of her sentence, or whether she even gets one, should depend on facts, not outrage. There is more to this story and we’d need to know what it is to know with any precision what the proper resolution is.
Or that even if she doesn’t feel that way while living in what one assumes is not the best part of Syria, she won’t change her mind again once she returns to the comforts of America and the freedom of speech that will allow re-brainwashing.
I want to agree, but there too the child will have access to more than the usual resentment.
If the kid comes back, he gets adopted out with permanently sealed records.
I find your lack of certainty to be as compelling as any argument either way.
Think of the book deal she could wrangle.
At risk of hijacking up the thread, I would like to sever the mother-child relationship in immigration-type cases where someone claims to want the best for her kid.
It’s obviously Solomon-lite, but if a mother means it she would be willing to stay in her country and let an American raise her kid.
Yah, I’m not in a charitable mood about her either. However despite our feelings on the matter she is a natural born citizen and from what I have been reading this makes it essentially impossible to revoke her citizenship. How can you ban a citizen from comming back? Leagaly I mean. I think you have to just make it clear she will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law for her choices as an adult.
So now here is the question I have why wouldn’t we want to prosecute her as an example to others? If she stays put in Syria is justice actually served.
I want her to confess and testify to all the human rights crimes she witnessed and then for her to serve her jail sentence in contemplative contrition. That would be the best and most just outcome. Sadly I just think she’s looking for a mulligan. Also her latest husband is alive I take it? Only two out of three are dead. Who and where is he?
The child should be free to come. Though one might wonder how competent her parents are to raise it considering the poor job they did with their daughter.
Well, I’ve read most of these comments now and I feel I have devoted enough of my finite time to thinking about this traitor and her poor child.
Of the millions of suffering children in the world, this one must fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.
I think we have a pretty good example of this situation in John Lindh Walker. If she was a natural born American citizen, her citizenship cannot be revoked. However, she certainly can be jailed for giving aid and comfort to the enemy. There is no way that she should be allowed to return to the US without consequences for her betrayal. Choices have consequences. That’s life!
I think it’s unfair to blame her parents for how she turned out. Many wonderful parents raise great kids and one turns out to be a nightmare. We don’t know about her upbringing; that said, it’s still on her, from my perspective.
I say no! I read this morning that she wants the US government to pay for her ‘therapy’. That brings me up to a Hell no!
If she’s still got her US passport, and there’s no documented evidence that she committed any crimes other than travelling to a warzone and having a kid, is there any legal way to prevent her re-entry?
To get around this problem, some European countries are making it a criminal offense simply to travel to an officially-designated warzone without getting one’s government’s consent first.
As far as I can surmise, such a law shouldn’t violate the US constitution. Might be a not-terrible idea.
Seriously?? Good grief.
Did she? Like, did she go through the whole bureaucratic process? US law doesn’t make it easy to renounce one’s citizenship.
If she’s allowed to renounce simply by saying so, then why aren’t millionaires trying to avoid taxes on overseas income allowed to do the same thing?
Of course, I think brainwashing by internet happens all the time. We have plenty of brainwashed people in this country. Mind-controlled and taught what to say and believe through constant repetition. Though we don’t call it brainwashing. We call it “CNN.”
This is from the DailyMail. I would put it in the “Trust but verify list”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6725325/ISIS-bride-Alabama-says-wants-pay-therapy-comes-home.html
Wanting something does not make it so. Even if she’s legally entitled to re-enter the United States, there’s no law that says she’s entitled to anything other than the usual state welfare benefits.
Why can’t she just be designated an enemy combatant and told her residence will be Gitmo if she returns? This is what we do with enemy combatants, right? They are not owed due process. Her allegiance was (is?) to ISIS, obviously. She married three ISIS fighters and had children by them. She’s an enemy of these United States. Period.
anonymous Lindh was caught in the act of serving as an illegal enemy combatant. He plead guilty to two charges (supplying services to the Taliban, and carrying an explosive during the commission of a felony).
As far as I can tell from press reports, the best evidence that Hoda Muthana committed a criminal offense would be recordings of her online spokesperson appearances for ISIS. That seems like pretty weak sauce to me, but maybe a good prosecutor could make it stick. Either way, given what she’s been saying to reporters, it’s doubtful that she would plead guilty like Walker did.
Presumably there has to be evidence that she ever carried a weapon before she can be designated an enemy combatant.
All of this discussion has now become academic. From Foxnews:
“Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that an Alabama woman who joined ISIS but now wants to return home with the 18-month-son she had with her ISIS husband will not be admitted back into the United States, saying she is not a U.S. citizen.
“Ms. Hoda Muthana is not a U.S. citizen and will not be admitted into the United States,” Pompeo said in a statement. “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. We continue to strongly advise all U.S. citizens not to travel to Syria.””
Immigration and Citizenship
Renounce or Lose Your U.S. Citizenship
You will no longer be an American citizen if you voluntarily give up (renounce) your U.S. citizenship. You might lose your U.S. citizenship in specific cases, including if you:
She left the country to fight for ISIS. She burned her passport. She swore allegiance to ISIS.
Seems like plenty of reasons .