SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Immigration authorities at the San Francisco International Airport detained a prominent British journalist and political commentator over the weekend while he was on a speaking tour in the United States, authorities said.<\/p>\n
A federal spokesperson accused Sam Hamdi of \u201csupport(ing) terrorism and undermin(ing) American national security\u201d without evidence.<\/p>\n
Hamdi, a critic of Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza, was detained Sunday morning, the Council for American-Islamic Relations said in a statement hours later. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security also confirmed the detainment.<\/p>\n
CAIR, an American Muslim civil rights organization, added that it believes the detainment occurred because of Hamdi\u2019s criticism of Israel. In its statement, the organization referred to the detainment as an abduction and called it a \u201cblatant affront to free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur attorneys and partners are working to address this injustice,\u201d CAIR said in the statement. \u201cWe call on ICE to immediately account for and release Mr. Hamdi, whose only \u2018crime\u2019 is criticizing a federal government that committed genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an emailed statement, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin credited Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem with the detainment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks to the work of (Noem and Rubio) and the men and women of law enforcement, this individual\u2019s visa was revoked and he is in ICE custody pending removal,\u201d McLaughlin said. \u201cUnder President Trump, those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country. It\u2019s common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials at San Francisco International Airport said they were unaware of the detainment.<\/p>\n
\u201cDepartment of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies operate outside the jurisdiction of U.S. airports,\u201d San Francisco Airport spokesperson Doug Yakel said via email. \u201cAs a result, we are not involved in any decisions about DHS operations, nor are we notified of such operations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamdi spoke at CAIR\u2019s annual gala in Sacramento on Saturday night and had been scheduled to speak in Florida on Sunday night, according to the organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur nation must stop abducting critics of the Israeli government at the behest of unhinged Israel First bigots,\u201d the organization said in a statement posted on social media. \u201cThis is an Israel First policy, not an America First policy, and it must end.\u201d<\/p>\n
The organization blamed right-wing political activist and social media personality Laura Loomer for the action.<\/p>\n
In a social media statement, Loomer called Hamdi a \u201cJihadist\u201d and said that CAIR \u201chas been identified in federal proceedings as having historical financial and organizational ties to Hamas \u2014 a designated foreign Islamic terrorist organization \u2014 and the Muslim brotherhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally Published: October 27, 2025 at 10:08 AM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Immigration authorities at the San Francisco International Airport detained a prominent British journalist and political…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[19624,19625,19627,2871,19626,101,103,603,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-25703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-british-muslim","tag-commentator","tag-detained","tag-ice","tag-journanslist","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-international-airport","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}