British Commentator Detained in US Over Political Views
A prominent British political commentator has returned to London after spending more than two weeks in US immigration detention, claiming he was targeted for his pro-Palestinian advocacy. Sami Hamdi arrived at Heathrow Airport on 13th November 2025, ending a three-week ordeal that began when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained him at San Francisco International Airport.
Hamdi described his detention as "less an attack on me and more an attack on Americans and the rights of Americans themselves" during an exclusive interview with the Guardian shortly after his return. The commentator had been on a speaking tour in the United States when authorities abruptly cancelled his visa and took him into custody.
The Controversial Arrest and Allegations
The Trump administration defended Hamdi's arrest on 26th October by labelling him a "terrorist sympathiser," though they provided no concrete evidence to support this claim. Instead, officials referenced an edited video compilation produced by the pro-Israel group Memri that allegedly showed Hamdi praising the 7th October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.
In the controversial clips, Hamdi appears to tell his audience not to "pity" Palestinians but to "celebrate their victory." He's also heard saying: "Allah has shown the world that no normalization can erase the Palestinian cause. How many of you feel it in your hearts when you got the news that it happened? How many of you felt the euphoria?"
However, Hamdi insists the video was heavily edited to distort his actual message. He maintains that during the same speaking engagement he explicitly denounced violence, and the selectively edited clips completely misrepresented his position. "They knew it was out of context," he stated. "They knew that it did not reflect anything that people claimed that it reflected."
Detention Conditions and Medical Neglect
During his time in detention, Hamdi claims he was denied medical care for severe abdominal pain until his wife alerted media outlets about his deteriorating condition. He recalled a guard telling him that "the only way the medical team will come is if you drop down on the floor."
The circumstances of his arrest were particularly distressing. Hamdi described being stopped by Department of Homeland Security agents while waiting to board a flight from San Francisco to Florida. Agents informed him his visa had been revoked but provided no further explanation.
"I was thrown in the back of a van in a very tight, claustrophobic space, driven for five hours to a random location in the middle of nowhere, not being told where I'm going, not allowed to call my lawyer," he recounted. Right-wing activist Laura Loomer celebrated his detention at the time, posting "SCALP" on social media platform X.
Legal Status and Voluntary Departure
According to Hamdi's legal representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), the government never formally accused him of any crimes or alleged he posed a security threat. Instead, authorities charged him with overstaying his visa after cancelling it without notification shortly before his arrest.
Cair emphasised in a statement that Hamdi "is not being deported or removed but is instead departing on his own terms" under a voluntary arrangement that doesn't prevent him from applying for future entry to the US. The organisation pointed out that if the government had credible evidence supporting their public insinuations, Hamdi wouldn't have been allowed to leave voluntarily.
Hamdi agreed to depart after being guaranteed the right to apply for a new US visa, which he says he intends to do. "What they want is to ensure that people like us don't go to America," he stated, referencing earlier detentions of foreign students over political activity this year. "And we will defy them and we will exert our constitutional rights and speak truth against hatred."
Witnessing America's Immigration System
Perhaps the most "heartbreaking" aspect of his experience, Hamdi said, was witnessing the conditions faced by other immigration detainees. When fellow detainees learned he was a journalist, they shared harrowing stories of bureaucratic delays keeping them separated from their families for months.
He described one green card holder from Latin America who had lived in the US for 42 years, was married to a US citizen, and had US citizen children. The man had been detained during his regular immigration check-in and saw his case repeatedly adjourned. Another detainee, a 23-year-old from Chechnya, had sought asylum to avoid conscription into fighting in Ukraine but had spent ten months in immigration detention, falling into severe depression.
"It is such a tragedy of justice; you really feel like they are forgotten people," Hamdi reflected. "The worst part of my detention was watching all of the other inmates around me, and just how miserable they've become, not because they don't deserve to be in America but simply because they're not even being brought in front of a judge."
Broader Implications for Free Speech
Hamdi warned that increasingly draconian measures by US immigration officials could deter people from travelling to America. He posed a hypothetical scenario: "Let's suppose somebody waves a Palestinian flag at the World Cup next year. Does that mean that their visa is going to be revoked?"
He believes his detention reflects broader attempts to suppress pro-Palestinian speech in the US. "They are trying to curb freedom of speech because there's a concern among the extremist Israeli lobby that American public opinion is shifting," he argued.
Despite these challenges, Hamdi finds hope in recent political developments, including the election of Zohran Mamdani in New York, which he sees as evidence that efforts to suppress pro-Palestinian advocacy are failing.
"As much as there is an attempt to silence pro-Palestinian activism or control what Americans can hear or listen to," he observed, "the American public has shifted. In reality, it's not the extremist lobby that is winning. It's actually truth and justice that's winning and the extremists are lashing out in a hysteria."
The US Department of Homeland Security maintained its position, with assistant secretary for public affairs Patricia McLaughlin stating that Hamdi was "an illegal alien and terrorist sympathizer who cheered on Hamas following its October 7 terrorist attack." She added that under President Trump, "those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country."
