The family of British political commentator Sami Hamdi, who was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in late October while on a speaking tour in the US, say he is set to be released and will be able to “return home soon”.
“The government has agreed to release Sami,” the family said in a statement on Monday. “He will be able to return home soon insha’Allah.”
Hamdi was detained on 26 October at San Francisco international airport. At the time, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) said his detention appeared to be in retaliation for the Muslim political commentator’s criticism of Israel while touring the US, calling it a “blatant affront to free speech”, and called for his release.
Later on 26 October, the Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said that Hamdi’s visa had been revoked and that he was in “ICE custody pending removal”.
“Under President Trump, those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country,” McLaughlin said.
In a separate statement that same day, the state department said that the US “has no obligation to host foreigners who support terrorism and actively undermine the safety of Americans. We continue to revoke the visas of persons engaged in such activity”.
The Guardian reported last month that the US officials appeared to be referencing remarks Hamdi made following the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, as on 27 October, the DHS shared a video clip by the pro-Israel group Memri, in which Hamdi was recorded saying that Palestinians should “celebrate their victory” and asked if they had felt “euphoria” over what had taken place.
Hamdi later sought to clarify his remarks. In another speaking engagement several days after the Hamas attacks he said: “We don’t celebrate blood lust, we don’t celebrate death and we don’t celebrate war” adding that “what Muslims are celebrating is not war, they’re celebrating the revival of a cause – a just cause – that everybody thought was dead, this is an important distinction … I don’t celebrate war, I don’t celebrate death.”
In an interview with the Guardian in late October, Hamdi’s wife called the allegations against her husband “outrageous” and said the videos were “edited in a way to frame Sami in a horrible light and produced by an organization that is very well known to be anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, Islamophobic and out there to target people who are speaking up against the genocide against Palestinians”.
On Monday, the California chapter of Cair, whose legal team has been representing Hamdi in court along with attorneys from the Muslim Legal Fund of America and The HMA Law Firm, confirmed in a statement that Hamdi had accepted an offer to leave the US voluntarily.
They added that the immigration charging document filed “in his case alleged only a visa overstay – after the government revoked his visa without cause and without prior notice – and never identified any criminal conduct or security grounds”.
“This agreement establishes that the government does not consider Hamdi a danger to the community or to national security,” Cair said.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request from comment from the Guardian.
