🛑 “Bring Him Home” — Why the U.S. Must Release My Dear Brother, the British Journalist Sami Hamdi

Detained at SFO after a secret visa revocation, interrogated without counsel, smeared for a clipped quote — this is speech-based retaliation, not due process.

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Sisters and Brothers,

Today I am writing to you about my friend and brother - a man I love for the sake of Allah - Sami Hamdi. He is, in effect, a political prisoner right now here in the United States, and it’s one of the single most outrageous things I’ve ever seen.

I have traveled and spoken around the world with Sami Hamdi. I know his heart, his integrity, his ethics, his love for his family. He is a British citizen, a journalist and political commentator, and my brother in faith. Today, he is being unlawfully detained in the United States for doing exactly what a journalist does: speaking plainly about state power and its abuses. That’s it.

I have spoken often to Sami’s parents and family, have connected regularly with his attorneys, and can at least tell you that everybody is doing their very best to seek Sami’s freedom. Let me explain what happened. It’s so dirty.

On Sunday, October 26th, at San Francisco International Airport, ICE agents detained Sami. He had just spoken at a CAIR gala in Sacramento and was on his way to another event in Florida. He did not know that two days earlier U.S. authorities had revoked his visa — secretly. At the airport, agents bundled him into a black van, confiscated his phone, allowed one text, and later hung up on his wife when she called. He was moved at night between facilities and interrogated without his lawyers present. His habeas and TRO are now in court.

When people called me that night we are all angry because we thought they were going to force Sami to return back home to the UK. Never, never in a million years did I think they were going to detain him. He’s one of the best men I know! And because he was born and raised in the UK - I think I was naive in thinking he was safe. Clearly being a Muslim makes you a target here no matter where you are from.

Let me be as clear as I can: that is not what due process looks like. That is political retaliation against a Muslim journalist for his advocacy for Palestinian rights.

The government’s “case”

DHS told the press that Sami “cheered on” the October 7th attacks and used an out of context clipped video to justify detention — conveniently ignoring Sami’s many statements condemning racism, Islamophobia, antisemitism, genocide, and war crimes, and his immediate clarifications that “What Muslims are celebrating is not war; they’re celebrating the revival of a cause — a just cause.”

No charges have been filed.

The law (plain English)

• Visa revocation is easy; detention is not automatically justified. Under INA §221(i), State can revoke visas without prior notice. That is not evidence of a crime.

• If a traveler is already admitted and within the authorized stay, the government must show a statutory ground of removability to hold them — and provide notice, access to counsel, and a bond hearing within a reasonable time.

• Speech is protected. The U.S. cannot use immigration to punish viewpoint or content of speech. That’s basic First Amendment doctrine.

• Consular rights apply. As a British citizen, Sami is entitled to consular notification and access under the Vienna Convention.

• The reported invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to target pro-Palestine advocacy is a warning sign, not a legal trump card. Criticism of a foreign government is not a crime, not “material support,” and not a lawful basis for detention.

Why this is bigger than one case

This is part of a pattern: leadership-level figures calling to deport Muslim officials, platforms erasing evidence of Israeli abuses on sanctions pretexts, and now immigration law used as a bludgeon against a British journalist mid-tour. If they can do this to Sami — a widely known, respected analyst with a global audience — ask yourself what they plan for people with less reach and fewer allies. “If they can do it to him, they can do it to us.” That’s the point. This scares people and their entire goal is to make an example out of Sami and to scare all of us into silence.

What needs to happen now

1. Release Sami immediately or grant bond; produce the Notice to Appear and any evidence.

2. Provide the written visa revocation with the statutory basis and the identity of the officials who signed it.

3. Cease using clipped propaganda to smear protected speech; stop pretending criticism of Israel is “support for terrorism.”

4. Congressional oversight: House/Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security must investigate speech-based immigration retaliation.

Facts No One Can Spin

• Detained at SFO Oct 26; visa revoked secretly two days earlier.

• No charges—only an edited clip wielded to smear him for pro-Palestine speech.

• Habeas + TRO filed; attorney access curtailed; interrogation without counsel reported.

• Consular questions: British national; UK says it’s assisting; family calls the response inadequate.

• Pattern: part of a broader campaign to silence pro-Palestinian advocacy through immigration and censorship.

Please pray for Sami and his family. I know this man. I know his character, his ethics, his love for his children. Keeping him locked up for a speech tour shames the very words “freedom of expression.”

Bring him home.

Love and appreciate each of you.
Your friend and brother,
Shaun

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