Back in November of 2014, Hoda Muthana made a momentous decision: she decided to leave Alabama to join the Islamic State, which then spread across Syria and Iraq. Now, Muthana wants to come home and to stand trial in the United States. President Donald Trump, however, has said “no deal” and has refused her entry.
Muthana was a resident in Alabama but is not an American citizen. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo noted: “Ms. Hoda Muthana is not a U.S. citizen and will not be admitted into the United States. She does not have any legal basis, no valid U.S. passport, no right to a passport, nor any visa to travel to the United States.”
However, her citizenship status is rather complicated. Muthana was born in New Jersey in 1994. Under the United States’ jus soli (“right of the soil”) citizenship model, those who are born on American soil are automatically American citizens. But there is a caveat: The parents must be under the jurisdiction of United States law.
The vast majority of people on American soil are indeed under the jurisdiction of American law. However, there is an important exception: diplomats, who are granted diplomatic immunity and are not technically subject to local laws. Muthana’s father had been a Yemeni diplomat in the United States but stepped down weeks before Muthana was born.
So is Muthana a citizen? Or did her father’s status as a diplomat negate her jus soli rights? Courts will likely decide her status in the future.
Meanwhile, over in the United Kingdom another ISIS bride, Shamima Begum, was outright stripped of her citizenship. Begum is hoping to return to the United Kingdom. The British government claims that she is a dual UK/Bangladeshi citizen and thus stripping her of citizenship won’t leave her stateless. However, the Bangladeshi government has claimed that Begum is not a citizen of Bangladesh and has never even visited the country.
