British political commentator Sami Hamdi had his visa revoked Sunday morning at the San Francisco International Airport as the Department of Homeland Security prepares to deport him.
Hamdi’s detainment comes after he spoke Saturday night in Sacramento at a gala for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which issued a press release about his pending deportation hours later. He was heading to speak at another CAIR event in Florida on Sunday night.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote in an X post (opens in new tab) on Sunday that Hamdi poses a threat to national security.
“Those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country,” she said.
CAIR called the detention an “abduction” and a “blatant affront to free speech.” Hamdi has been a vocal critic of American politicians for allying themselves with Israel and providing military funding for the onslaught in Gaza.
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“Our nation must stop abducting critics of the Israeli government at the behest of unhinged Israel First bigots,” the Muslim American civil rights group said in a written statement. “This is an Israel First policy, not an America First policy, and it must end.”
Hamdi’s detainment is the latest in a string of deportations of people who have criticized Israel. In June, two Palestinian men — Awdah Hathaleen and his cousin Eid Hathaleen — were denied entry at SFO and sent to Qatar. Awdah Hathaleen was killed in the West Bank weeks later (opens in new tab), allegedly by an Israeli settler.
On Sunday, within minutes after the DHS announcement about Hamdi, one of MAGA’s biggest cheerleaders, Laura Loomer, took to Twitter to celebrate the occasion.
“Sami Hamdi is a supporter of HAMAS and the Muslim Brotherhood,” she wrote (opens in new tab). “He’s a jihadi. You’re lucky his only fate is being arrested and deported.”
Loomer said Hamdi had become a target of the Trump administration following an investigation by RAIR International, an activist organization with the stated goal of providing “a window into the deleterious effects of Communism and Islamic Supremacy on Civilization.” RAIR concluded (opens in new tab) that Hamdi is involved with the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Sunni Islamist organization, and is on “U.S. soil to expand a foreign political network hostile to American interests.”
Among their findings were that Hamdi had encouraged Muslims to “celebrate the victory” of Oct. 7 days after the attacks.
“When you got the news that it happened, how many of you felt the euphoria?” he said (opens in new tab).
On Sunday afternoon, Shaun Maguire, a partner at the venture capital firm Sequoia and an outspoken supporter of Israel, alleged that Hamdi had targeted him personally in an attempt to get him fired.
“[Hamdi] directed people to use AI to auto generate unique emails to send to our LPs,” Maguire wrote on X (opens in new tab). “There are jihadists in America whose full time job is to silence us.”
SFO didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.