US: British journalist Sami Hamdi to be released from ICE detention, set to return home

British journalist and political commentator Sami Hamdi will be released from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention following a hearing on Monday, according to his legal team.

Sam and the government reached an agreement during his hearing that he would leave the US voluntarily.

He arrived in the US on 19 October on a valid visitor visa for a speaking tour, but his visa was revoked on 24 October without his knowledge and without being informed by immigration authorities, according to Zahraa Billo, executive director for the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair-SFBA).

Sam was charged with a visa overstay on 26 October by ICE agents while he was at San Francisco International Airport and was then transferred to Golden State Annex in McFarland, California, where he was kept in a cell with around 80 other people.

He has not been charged with any criminal conduct or charged on the grounds of national security despite allegations by the Department of Homeland Security on X that he supports terrorism and actively undermines the “safety of Americans”.

Billoo told Middle East Eye over the phone that Sam was approached and detained by ICE agents on 26 October in the airport's domestic terminal. 

“He was travelling between San Francisco and Florida, so this is not a border stop. This was a domestic trip. He had already gone through TSA at the time," Billoo said.

Billoo said Sam's visa had been revoked on 24 October, but “They did not provide a reason,” and added that “They did not give him notice, so there was no way for him to voluntarily leave or voluntarily travel back to Great Britain.”

Cair-California, along with Sam’s legal team, requested and was granted an emergency restraining order, preventing the government from transferring him away from his legal team in California. If such a move were to occur, they would provide a 72-hour notice. 

Billoo said the legal team had also requested a bond hearing “because there's no reason that he should be in detention right now”.

First Amendment rights

Sam’s father, Tunisian author and journalist Dr Mohamed Elhachimi Hamdi, said in a post on X on Monday that it was the first time his son had stood before a judge. 

“He has never broken a law,” he said. 

Mohamed added it was ironic that Sam was standing trial for his views on Palestine in the "Land of the Free,” rather than for a crime. He added that Sam had publicly condemned antisemitism. 

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He also shared that Sam liked President Donald Trump’s "America First" policy and hoped it would “shape US policy more broadly in the future”. 

He warned Americans that accepting what was happening to Sam may pave the way for violations of their own First Amendment rights.

“Dear Americans: you are decent, open-minded, kind - that’s how my son sees you,” he said. “Why do this to him… for an opinion?

“Accepting this injustice today may make it tomorrow’s threat to you. Freedom and the right to disagree are indivisible."

Cair-California CEO Hussam Ayloush also said that Sam was being penalised for speaking out about Israel’s war crimes against Palestinians and should never have spent a single night in an ICE cell.

“Sami’s case shows how quickly our government officials are willing to sacrifice our First Amendment and free press when a journalist uses his platform to dare put America first before Israel,” he said. 

“His forthcoming release is welcome, but it does not erase the message this sends to every activist and journalist watching - and every authoritarian dictatorship worldwide who can now claim they are following America’s example.”

'Brazen censorship'

Sam’s detention is the latest episode in a series of detentions of students and journalists.

Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, Columbia University graduate and permanent US resident Mahmoud Khalil and Georgetown University postdoctoral scholar Badar Khan Suri were all detained by ICE earlier this year for their pro-Palestinian activism. None were charged with a crime. 

Columbia University students Yunseo Chung and Ranjani Srinivasan were also targeted by ICE. Srinivasan left the US on her own volition after she was informed that her student visa had been revoked. She had been arrested and released in a police raid the evening that students occupied Hamilton Hall and renamed it “Hind’s Hall”. 

Jordan Wells, senior attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, was part of the legal team that challenged ICE’s targeting of Chung for her pro-Palestinian activism. He told MEE in an email that the Trump administration was using immigration law to control who is able to engage with the American public.

“This is a clear example of the Trump administration using immigration law to control the ideas with which it will permit American audiences to engage,” he said. “We should all bristle at such brazen censorship.”