Weeks After SFO Arrest, Political Commentator Sami Hamdi Is Released and Leaves US

British political commentator Sami Hamdi voluntarily left the U.S. on Wednesday after more than two weeks in federal immigration detention following his arrest at San Francisco International Airport.

Hamdi, who is Muslim and a vocal critic of the Israeli government, was on a national speaking tour at the time of his detainment. The Department of Homeland Security accused him of being a supporter of terrorism and cheering on Hamas after its attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Hamdi’s detention is part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to crack down on adversarial speech by noncitizens, particularly surrounding Israel and the war in Gaza, raising concerns about the erosion of First Amendment rights.

“This administration has made it clear that if you are critical of Israel and its policies in Gaza, you’re subject to efforts at removal of you from the United States,” UC Davis law professor Kevin Johnson said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Hamdi at SFO on Oct. 26, just a day after he spoke at the annual gala of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Sacramento chapter. He was headed to Florida, where he was scheduled to appear at another CAIR event later that evening.

Hamdi, who was taken to the Golden State Annex detention facility in McFarland after his arrest, said he was transported in shackles at least twice during his detention without notice, crowded into rooms with dozens of men and forced to wait hours for medical attention.

Following Hamdi’s arrest, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin announced on social media platform X that his visa had been revoked and that he was in ICE custody pending removal from the U.S., but his departure this week was voluntary rather than a deportation.

“Under President Trump, those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country,” McLaughlin said.

But according to CAIR’s California chapter, the government did not file criminal charges against Hamdi or allege in court that he posed any security threat. The organization said that the government brought only a claim that he had overstayed his visa, which was possible because DHS revoked his visa during his visit.

Hamdi’s attorneys said the detention was a show of political retaliation and a violation of his First Amendment rights that sought to suppress his future speech.

In a statement, the California chapter of CAIR said Hamdi was detained “at the urging of well-known anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian extremists,” and added that his arrest occurred after a set of public appearances where Hamdi was vocal on Palestinian human rights.

“Hamdi’s case is part of a broader pattern of authorities targeting journalists and advocates who speak out for Palestinian human rights and criticize Israeli government policies,” it continued.

In March, ICE officers arrested Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, an Algerian American legal permanent resident. Khalil was one of the most vocal spokespeople and negotiators at Columbia’s high-profile Gaza solidarity encampment in spring 2024.

The same month, Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk was detained, though she was released after a federal judge found her arrest was likely in retaliation for a student newspaper op-ed she wrote that was critical of the campus’ response to the war in Gaza.

The State Department detained and initiated deportation hearings against another Columbia student activist, Mohsen Mahdawi, a lawful permanent resident, based on claims that his actions were harmful to foreign policy.

Johnson, the UC Davis law professor, said the Trump administration is unlike any other modern presidency in “using the immigration laws to target political dissenters, to target Muslims, to target Latinos, and using immigration laws in ways that are really extraordinary.”

The laws surrounding free speech for immigrants and noncitizens are not firmly established and have been much more restricted in the past, he said.

During the McCarthy-era rise of anti-communism fear and paranoia, the Supreme Court ruled in a number of cases that immigrants could be deported for expressing views sympathetic toward the Communist Party or its figures.

The Trump administration has also invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime law that allows the president to remove people from the country without a hearing. The move came in an attempt to deport Venezuelan nationals who Trump alleged were part of Tren de Aragua, a criminal organization on the administration’s foreign terrorist list.

Such a measure has only been taken three times in U.S. history — during the War of 1812 and the first and second World Wars — and can only be employed by a president if they determine that a foreign government is conducting an “invasion” outside of wartime, according to Congress.

“It appears that this administration is returning to an effort to regulate ideology among non-civilians in this country,” Johnson said.

An immigration judge in September ordered that Khalil should be deported for withholding information in his green card application, but his case is still undergoing an appeal. While federal judges have ordered that Öztürk and Mahdawi be freed from detention, the Trump administration is still pursuing deportation.

Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act has faced a slew of legal challenges from the Supreme Court and federal appeals courts, but the high court hasn’t yet ruled directly on whether his use of the law to deport Venezuelan nationals is legal.

Soon, Johnson said, it’s likely that the Supreme Court will revisit the question of how protected noncitizen speech in the country is.

“We’ll have to see what the Supreme Court decides,” he said.

KQED’s Sara Hossaini contributed to this report.