Advocates Applaud as Pro-Palestinian Commentator Sami Hamdi Released by ICE

[cbabe]

https://www.commondreams.org/news/sami-hamdi-biography

Advocates Applaud as Pro-Palestinian Commentator Sami Hamdi Released by ICE

“Sami never should have spent a single night in an ICE cell,” said one advocate. “His only real ‘offense’ was speaking clearly about Israel’s genocidal war crimes against Palestinians.”

JULIA CONLEY
Nov 11, 2025

A leading Muslim civil rights group in the US applauded Monday as the Trump administration’s agreement to release British pro-Palestinian commentator Sami Hamdi acknowledged that he is not “a danger to the community or to national security,” after he was held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention for more than two weeks.

Hamdi’s family and the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has been representing the journalist, expressed relief at the news that he had accepted an offer to leave the US voluntarily.

…

As Prem Thakker reported at Zeteo News, two “unelected, far-right, Islamophobic figures,” Laura Loomer and Amy Mekelburg, took credit for “investigating” Hamdi. Mekelburg published a report that called on the US to deport Hamdi and prohibit him from entering the country, claiming he was “training US Muslims in digital agitation, electoral sabotage, and political warfare in alignment with Muslim Brotherhood doctrine.”

…

CAIR-CA emphasized Monday that in Hamdi’s immigration charging documents, the US government alleged only a visa overstay “and never identified any criminal conduct or security grounds.”

… more …

[lapucelle]

1. Isn't CAIR the group that President Biden cut ties with over its response to October 7

and also the group that helped fund the Abandon Harris campaign?

December 2023, the Biden administration cut off contact with CAIR after its executive director stated he was "happy to see" Palestinians break Israel's siege on the Gaza Strip on October 7. Awad also stated that Palestinians "have the right to self-defense" but that Israel "as an occupying power" does not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_on_American%E2%80%93Islamic_Relations

------------------------------------

The Abandon Harris campaign was among the groups that urged voters not to support Harris, the Democratic nominee, in the 2024 election due to the Biden administration's support for Israel's war in Gaza.

[T]he Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) said its nationwide exit poll found a majority of Muslim voters voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, while Trump and Harris each captured about 20 percent of their vote.

https://www.newsweek.com/muslim-groups-respond-trump-gaza-plan-2026668

[cbabe]

2. Thanks for the background on CAIR. The

First Amendment is a doozy.

Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com › quotes › tag › freedom-of-speech

Freedom Of Speech Quotes (518 quotes) - Goodreads

518 quotes have been tagged as freedom-of-speech: George Orwell: 'If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not wa...