{"id":47191,"date":"2025-10-27T12:21:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T12:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=47191"},"modified":"2026-07-08T02:21:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T02:21:58","slug":"ice-detains-british-journalist-after-criticism-of-israel-on-us-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2025\/10\/27\/ice-detains-british-journalist-after-criticism-of-israel-on-us-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE detains British journalist after criticism of Israel on US tour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The British journalist\u00a0Sami Hamdi\u00a0was reportedly detained on Sunday morning by federal immigration authorities at\u00a0San Francisco\u00a0international airport, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) says that action is apparent retaliation for the Muslim\u00a0political commentator\u2019s criticism of Israel while touring the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\u00a0statement\u00a0from Cair said it was \u201ca blatant affront to free speech\u201d to detain Hamdi for criticizing Israel\u2019s ongoing military campaign in Gaza while he engaged on a speaking tour in the US. A\u00a0Trump administration\u00a0official added in a separate statement that Hamdi was facing deportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur attorneys and partners are working to address this injustice,\u201d Cair\u2019s statement said. The statement also called on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) \u201cto immediately account for and release Mr Hamdi\u201d, saying his only \u201c\u2018crime\u2019 is criticizing a foreign government\u201d that Cair accused of having \u201ccommitted genocide\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, wrote of Hamdi in a social media\u00a0post: \u201cThis individual\u2019s visa was revoked, and he is in ICE custody pending removal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McLaughlin\u2019s post also said: \u201cThose who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his tour, Hamdi spoke on Saturday at the annual gala for Cair\u2019s chapter in Sacramento. He was expected to speak on Sunday at the gala for the Florida chapter of Cair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"screengrab<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

McLaughlin\u2019s post about Hamdi\u2019s detention was shared by the Trump administration ally Laura Loomer<\/a>, who took credit for his being taken into custody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loomer, who has called<\/a> herself a \u201cwhite advocate<\/a>\u201d and a \u201cproud Islamophobe\u201d, has often peddled conspiracy theories such as endorsing claims that the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 were an \u201cinside job\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, she infamously chained<\/a> herself to Twitter\u2019s headquarters in New York City in protest of her account being banned. The billionaire businessman Elon Musk reinstated<\/a> her account after he bought the social media platform in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a direct result of \u2026 my relentless pressure on the [state department] and Department of Homeland Security, US officials have now moved to take action against Hamdi\u2019s visa status, and his continued presence in this country,\u201d Loomer posted<\/a> on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamdi is the latest of numerous immigrants who have been arrested and deported by ICE over pro-Palestinian views. Earlier in October, journalist Mario Guevara was deported<\/a> to El Salvador after having been detailed while live streaming the massive, anti-Trump No Kings protest in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 30 September, a federal judge appointed during Ronald Reagan\u2019s presidency ruled<\/a> the administration\u2019s policy to detain and deport foreign scholars over pro-Palestinian views violates the US constitution and was designed to \u201cintentionally\u201d chill free speech rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ruling is bound to be appealed, possibly all the way to the US supreme court, which is dominated by a conservative supermajority made possible by three Trump appointments. The state department, meanwhile, has said it will continue revoking visas under the policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The British journalist\u00a0Sami Hamdi\u00a0was reportedly detained on Sunday morning by federal immigration authorities at\u00a0San Francisco\u00a0international airport, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) says that action is apparent retaliation for the Muslim\u00a0political commentator\u2019s criticism of Israel while touring the US. A\u00a0statement\u00a0from Cair said it was \u201ca blatant affront to free speech\u201d to detain Hamdi for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":29032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[11261,5754,6975,11394,5777,5717,5268,1451,10387,9331,10000,8032,6578,10507,12950,2255,9387,9304,4066,6303,4119,6778,5321,2629,5884,2264,10925,9222,6094,12380,10954,13157,3095,6030,12005,10009,5572,7259,5865,7693,990,1670,5568,8386,7574,11224,5561,6431,11979,12296,8778,5655,5349,10041,1825,9151,7609,13182,5350,184,6348,12786,7354,5647,6585,6571,10415,594],"class_list":["post-47191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-accused","tag-airport","tag-arrest","tag-attacks","tag-banned","tag-billionaire","tag-british","tag-businessman","tag-campaign","tag-city","tag-conservative","tag-conspiracy","tag-conspiracy-theories","tag-court","tag-customs","tag-deportation","tag-detained","tag-detention","tag-el","tag-el-salvador","tag-elon-musk","tag-engaged","tag-florida","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-government","tag-ice","tag-immigrants","tag-immigration","tag-injustice","tag-international","tag-islamic","tag-israel","tag-journalist","tag-judge","tag-kings","tag-military","tag-musk","tag-muslim","tag-national-security","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-palestinian","tag-platform","tag-presidency","tag-pro-palestinian","tag-protest","tag-release","tag-revoked","tag-sami-hamdi","tag-san-francisco","tag-security","tag-social-media","tag-speech","tag-supreme-court","tag-terrorism","tag-terrorist","tag-trump-administration","tag-twitter","tag-united-states-president-donald-john-trump-jr","tag-us","tag-us-immigration","tag-us-supreme-court","tag-visa","tag-visas","tag-white","tag-work","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47191"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47192,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47191\/revisions\/47192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}