Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?

Ok, this complicates things quite a bit. Was Pompeo’s announcement that Muthana is not a US citizen based on solid legal assessments or was it due to political interference by the president? https://t.co/mXdl98hrra

— Nahal Toosi (@nahaltoosi) February 20, 2019

Well, this complicates matters, too:

“The Trump administration continues its attempts to wrongfully strip citizens of their citizenship,” Shibly told AL.com. “Hoda Muthana had a valid US passport and is a citizen. She was born in Hackensack, NJ in October 1994, months after her father stopped being a diplomat.”

Most people born in the United States are accorded so-called birthright citizenship but there are exceptions:

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, a person born in the U.S. to a foreign diplomatic officer is not subject to U.S. law and is not automatically considered a U.S. citizen at birth.

It gets more complicated because:

The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial. The Caliphate is ready to fall. The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them........

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2019

Britain, however, pointedly refused to follow Trump's tweet (and when did those become official government directives?  Or even official government statements?), and denied another ISIS follower re-entry to Britain; except they have a law allowing them to revoke or deny citizenship.  So don't do as we do, but please do as we want.  

It's supposed to be hard, if not impossible, to revoke American citizenship; and this denial ties in all too conveniently with Trump's harangues against birthright citizenship.  Whether or not Muthana should be allowed into the U.S. is one question; the basis for denying her permission is another.

Hard cases make bad law, but this is a bad decision based on what might well be simply the whims of a racist xenophobic President.  It's the 21st century, we're supposed to be better than this.