© Hoover High SchoolHoda Muthana
Judge Reggie Walton found there was enough evidence to prove Muthana — the US-born mom who fled her home in Alabama to join the terror group in Syria in 2014 but has been begging to come back to the US — was born while her father was a Yemeni diplomat, BuzzFeed News reported.
The judge said Muthana's father, Ahmed Ali Muthana, can't provide financial support to either her or her 2-year-old son, Adam, who was born in ISIS territory, without facing potential charges of providing material support to terrorism.
Christina Jump, one of the lawyers representing the Muthana family, confirmed the judge's ruling in a statement obtained by The Post.
"While we are disappointed with and disagree with the Court's ruling today, this is not the end of our client's legal options. We will wait to read the Court's written opinion, and will evaluate our available options at that time," Jump said.
Ahmed claimed in a lawsuit against the Trump administration that he surrendered his diplomatic status on June 2, 1994, months before his daughter was born in Hackensack, New Jersey. Her family said Hoda also had a legitimate passport when she left the US to join ISIS.
The Obama administration initially determined she was not a citizen and notified her family that it was revoking her passport in January 2016.
Babies born in the US are typically granted citizenship, but those born to foreign diplomatic officers are exceptions, under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
In previous interviews, Hoda, 25, has claimed she's a "changed" woman who no longer holds the same ideology as ISIS followers.
"I hope America doesn't think I'm a threat to them and I hope they can accept me," she said in February, speaking from a refugee camp in northern Syria.
She's also claimed that she was "brainwashed" by ISIS.
After joining ISIS at the age of 19, Hoda — who has been married to at least two ISIS fighters who died, one of whom was the father of her only child — called for attacks on Americans.
"Americans wake up. ... Go on drive-bys and spill all of their blood. ... Veterans, patriots," she wrote in one 2015 tweet.
Hoda's highly publicized about-face begging to return to the US prompted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to issue a statement in February saying she wouldn't be let back in the country.
"Ms. Hoda Muthana is not a U.S. citizen and will not be admitted into the United States. 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," he said in the statement.
President Trump also weighed in on the diplomatic debacle.
"I have instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and he fully agrees, not to allow Hoda Muthana back into the Country!" he wrote.
Jump's statement noted that the judge's ruling was only "based on his interpretation of when diplomatic immunity ends."
"The Court did not base its ruling on a tweet by the President, or by any supposed proclamation made by any official," she said. "United States citizenship cannot be revoked by tweet or any other form of social media, and today's ruling does not change that."
Reader Comments
I hope not.