'No obligation to host foreigners!' DHS taunts wife of legal migrant 'abducted' by ICE

The Department of Homeland Security taunted the wife of a legal migrant who is currently in detention pending deportation, directly addressing her on social media Wednesday and accusing her husband of being a “terrorist sympathizer.”

Sami Hamdi, a British journalist who was in the United States on a visitor visa, was detained last month in San Francisco, California. He had his visa revoked, and is currently detained at the Golden State Annex in McFarland, California awaiting deportation.

Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, cited comments Hamdi had made as the reason for his detention and eventual deportation, claiming his remarks supported “terrorism” and undermined national security. The official DHS Instagram account would later point to specific comments of Hamdi’s in which he asked a crowd whether they felt “euphoria” after learning of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Hamdi’s wife, Soumaya Hamdi, penned an op-ed that was published in USA Today on Tuesday, pleading with the Trump administration to release her husband.

And on Wednesday, A DHS spokesperson responded to her op-ed, telling her there was “no room in the United States” for someone like her husband in a social media post.

“The U.S. has no obligation to host foreigners, like Sami Hamdi, who support terrorism and actively undermine the safety of Americans. And we won't,” the spokesperson wrote.

“There is no room in the United States for the rest of the world’s terrorist sympathizers, and we are under no obligation to admit them or let them stay here. [DHS Secretary Kristi] Noem has made it clear that anyone who thinks they can come to America and hide behind the First Amendment to advocate for anti-American and anti-Semitic violence and terrorism – think again.”

Mrs. Hambi, who’s described her husband’s arrest as being “abducted by ICE,” said she and her children were “left completely in the dark” as to the reason for her husband’s capture, which Mr. Hambi said saw him forced into a black van by several men.

The Trump administration has not publicly released evidence for its allegation of Hambi being a threat to national security, nor has Hambi been charged with a crime.

His arrest is consistent, however, with past detentions of legal migrants under the Trump administration for criticizing Israel, such as with Turkish citizen Rumeysa Ozturk, who while in the United States on a student visa, was arrested for deportation for having co-authored an op-ed in her student newspaper criticizing Israel’s ongoing siege on Gaza.