11/12/25 Reposted from cair.com
The California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA), along with co-counsel Hassan Ahmad of The HMA Law Firm and the Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA), today announced that British journalist Sami Hamdi is now on his way home to his family in the United Kingdom, leaving the United States voluntarily after more than two weeks in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody based on nothing more than a government-manufactured visa-overstay allegation.
For flight information, contact CAIR San Francisco Bay Area Executive Director Zahra Billoo at 626-252-0885 or [email protected].
No criminal charges were ever filed against Hamdi, and the government never alleged that he posed any security threat or brought anything more than the baseless overstay claim against him. If the government had any credible evidence behind the insinuations it amplified on social media, Hamdi would not be walking free today under a voluntary departure. CAIR-CA and co-counsel emphasized that Hamdi is not being deported or removed but is instead departing on his own terms under a voluntary arrangement that does not include a bar to future entry. This episode exposes how the government weaponized immigration law to silence dissent.
Hamdi was detained by ICE—at the urging of well-known anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian extremists—after a series of public appearances in which he spoke about Palestinian human rights and the Israeli genocide in Gaza. His attorneys argued in court that his detention was political retaliation and violated his First Amendment rights, also illegally suppressing his future speech.
Earlier this month, a federal judge recognized that Hamdi’s case raises serious First Amendment concerns and issued an order blocking ICE from transferring him out of California while his case was pending, ensuring he remained close to his legal team while they challenged his detention. That ruling affirmed the seriousness of the constitutional questions raised in this case.
According to Hamdi and his legal team, conditions at the facility were harsh not only for him but for hundreds of other detainees—many held long before he arrived and are still in custody. He was crowded with dozens of men in a single room, endured detention-center rations, and was forced to wait more than eight hours for medical attention while in excruciating pain, initially relying on medication from another detainee. He was also transported multiple times, without notice, in full shackles and, as recently as Monday night, was kept shackled overnight at a site whose capacity to house people overnight is unclear. His attorneys emphasized that such treatment was inflicted on someone never charged with a crime—and that hundreds of other civil detainees endure the same conditions in for-profit facilities with little oversight, where detention and delay are incentivized.
In a statement, Hamdi said:
“I am profoundly grateful to my family, my legal team and every individual in the global community who prayed, protested and refused to be silent. Let the record show: I broke no law and posed no threat. My only ‘offense’ was speaking the unvarnished truth about the genocide in Gaza.
“I am departing now, voluntarily, to reunite with my loved ones, not because the U.S. government ever established a credible case against me. This detention was a stark demonstration that a Muslim journalist can be held captive because extremists, amplified on social media, seek to weaponize state policy against inconvenient speech. This is not merely an injustice against me, but a searing indictment of any nation that claims to uphold free speech, a free press and the right to due process.”
In a statement, CAIR-CA CEO Hussam Ayloush said:
“Let’s be absolutely clear: if the government had any evidence to back up the smears it has been tweeting about Sami, he would not be on a flight home right now. They locked a journalist in an ICE cell and tried to frighten the public with baseless claims, and, in the end, all they proved was their own abuse of power. That should alarm anyone who cares about the rule of law.”
CAIR-CA and co-counsel said Hamdi’s decision to leave now allows him to reunite quickly with his family and continue his work without being unlawfully trapped in a drawn-out, punitive immigration process driven by politics—the same playbook increasingly used against critics of Israel.
“We are grateful to our community for mobilizing, demanding transparency, and refusing to accept the government’s narrative at face value,” Ayloush added. “This outcome shows the power of organized communities to push back against political retaliation, but it is also a warning shot: no journalist or community member should ever be targeted or detained for speaking out for Palestine.”
Hassan Ahmad of HMA Law added:
“Sami has me thinking a lot about the fourth branch of government—journalists—and why they are so feared by despots and authoritarians. I’ve documented cases of journalist and activist arrest in countries from Türkiye to India, Syria to Venezuela—and less than a year into this administration, we now have so, so many political prisoners in the U.S. Weakness of thought, policy, and character. They canceled his visa, but not his voice. I’m glad Sami will be in a place where he can continue to speak truth to power.”
MLFA Legal Director Marium Uddin added:
“We stood with Sami because it was the right thing to do. He stood for Palestine, the Rohingya, the Uighurs, the Sudanese—the oppressed everywhere. When a journalist is punished for telling the truth, it reveals the weakness of those in power. Here in the U.S., we never forget Gaza, the illegal settler activity, the burning of olive trees, or the abuse of prisoners. Standing with people of noble character like Sami is the least we can do to atone for our inability to divorce ourselves from an ongoing genocide. Sami never forgot, and he would never let us forget either—that’s why we stood with and for him.”
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. CAIR-CA and its partners will continue seeking transparency and accountability regarding the government’s treatment of Hamdi and others targeted for their speech.
CAIR-CA is a chapter of CAIR, America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
