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Donald Trump bars Alabama woman who joined Isis from returning to the United States

<em>Donald Trump says Alabama Isis recruiter Hoda Muthana should not be allowed to return to the United States (Getty/AP)</em>
Donald Trump says Alabama Isis recruiter Hoda Muthana should not be allowed to return to the United States (Getty/AP)

Donald Trump has barred an Alabama woman who fled to Syria to join Isis from returning to the United States.

Hoda Muthana and her son are now at a refugee camp in Syria after fleeing the terrorist group she joined in 2014.

She now wants to return to the US to protect her 18-month-old son but the President tweeted his decision to block her attempt.

Trump tweeted: ‘I have instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and he fully agrees, not to allow Hoda Muthana back into the Country!’

In a brief statement, Mr Pompeo confirmed the decision, arguing that Muthana was not a US citizen.

He said: ‘Ms Hoda Muthana is not a US citizen and will not be admitted into the United States.

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‘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.’

But her lawyer, Hassan Shibly, insisted Muthana was born in the United States and had a valid passport before she joined Isis.

He said she has renounced the terrorist group and wants to come home to protect her 18-month-old son regardless of the legal consequences.

<em>Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave no details as to how the Trump administration made their decision (Getty)</em>
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave no details as to how the Trump administration made their decision (Getty)

Mr Shibly said: ‘She’s an American. Americans break the law.

‘When people break the law, we have a legal system to handle those kinds of situations to hold people accountable, and that’s all she’s asking for.’

Mr Shibly said Muthana was ‘just a stupid, naive, young dumb woman’ when she became enamoured by Isis, believing it was an organisation that protected Muslims.

He said she fled her family in Alabama and made her way to Syria, where she was ‘brainwashed’ by Isis and compelled to marry one of the group’s soldiers. After he was killed, she married another, the father of her son.

<em>The Muthem case echoes that of Shamima Begum’s desire to return to the UK (PA)</em>
The Muthem case echoes that of Shamima Begum’s desire to return to the UK (PA)

After her second husband was also killed she married a third IS fighter but she ‘became disenchanted with the marriage’ and decided to escape, the lawyer said.

In a handwritten letter released by Mr Shibly, Muthana wrote that she made ‘a big mistake’ by rejecting her family and friends in the United States to join the Isis.

‘During my years in Syria I would see and experience a way of life and the terrible effects of war which changed me,’ she wrote.

<em>The President recently called on European countries to take back citizens who joined Isis (Getty)</em>
The President recently called on European countries to take back citizens who joined Isis (Getty)

‘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.’

Mr Shibly said that the administration argues that Muthana did not qualify for citizenship because her father was a Yemeni diplomat.

But the lawyer said her father had not had diplomatic status ‘for months’ before her birth in Hackensack, New Jersey.

The announcement came a day after Home Secretary Sajid Javid said that he was stripping the citizenship of Isis bride Shamima Begum.

It also comes as Trump recently told the UK and other European countries to take back and put on trial captured Isis fighters.

Mr Shibly said he intends to file a legal challenge to the government’s decision to deny her entry to the country.