SAN FRANCISCO — Attorneys for a visiting British journalist who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the weekend filed legal requests for his release Monday evening, his legal team said.
Sami Hamdi, a British journalist and political commentator, was visiting the United States on a speaking tour when he was detained at San Francisco International Airport Sunday for what a federal spokesperson said without evidence Monday was “support(ing) terrorism and undermin(ing) American national security.”
The legal filings also requested a temporary restraining order against transferring Hamdi outside the region, a guarantee of his access to legal counsel and a bar on his removal from the country until the conclusion of legal proceedings, according to a press release from the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, one of the organizations representing Hamdi. Attorneys are also seeking a habeas petition to protect Hamdi’s constitutional rights.
“We were heartened to see that Sami Hamdi is in positive spirits despite his abduction and the ongoing deprivation of his freedom and more dedicated than ever before to continue standing in solidarity with Americans advocating for free speech, human rights, and justice for all,” CAIR-CA said in a statement. “We have filed for a temporary restraining order to ensure that the government does not disappear Mr. Hamdi into a faraway detention facility, cut off from his legal team, while his case unfolds.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed Monday that Hamdi’s visa was revoked and that he was in custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement pending removal. The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond Tuesday to requests for comment on the legal filings.
CAIR-CA is representing Hamdi alongside the Muslim Legal Fund of America and immigration attorney Hassan Ahmad of The HMA Law Firm, the organization said.
Hamdi is being held at the Golden State Annex in McFarland, CA, where representatives from CAIR-CA met with him Monday and discussed “conditions and potential avenues of relief available to him,” they said. He remains “resolute and steadfast.”
Hamdi expressed his thanks for those who have spoken up in solidarity with him and encouraged Americans to call on the United States to “put America First, not the Israeli government first” and support human rights, CAIR-CA said.
CAIR-CA said that it believes Hamdi was detained because of his criticism of Israel. He had spoken at a Saturday night gala hosted by CAIR in Sacramento and had another speaking engagement in Florida scheduled for Sunday night.
In legal filings, Hamdi’s attorneys allege that he was detained “without reasonable suspicion, with an arrest warrant, and in violation of the immigration regulations and due process.” He had entered the country Oct. 19 on a B-1/B-2 visa, which are for the purposes of business and tourism.
“Can a foreign national visit the United States and criticize an ally of the United States?” his attorneys said in legal filings. “According to our Constitution and the will of Congress (expressed as recently as 1987), the answer is a resounding ‘yes.’ ”
The organization added that in previous cases in which people were detained because of their criticism of the Israeli government, such as activist and former Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil and Turkish Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, they were transferred to detention centers in Louisiana where they were “isolated from their families and attorneys.”
“We again encourage the State Department and ICE to stop abducting journalists, students and others with valid visas based on their criticism of a foreign government’s genocide. Every single person on American soil, including immigrants and visitors, has the right to free speech and other fundamental freedoms,” CAIR-CA said. “If the government can cancel a valid visa because it does not like what a person says or believes, then anyone legally visiting, studying or working in our country—whether conservative or liberal, religious or secular—would be in danger of abduction and deportation if the government happens to dislike their speech.”
“This is not what the Constitution permits or envisions, and this practice must end with Sami Hamdi,” they continued.
The documents were filed with the United States District Court in the Eastern District of California.