TAMPA, Fla. — Hoda Muthana was 19 years old when she made the decision to leave the United States and link up with ISIS.  She applied for and received a U.S. passport, landed in Turkey, then made her way to Syria where she married two ISIS soldiers. 

Now 24, separated from her third husband and the mother of a young son, Muthana wants to come home. But the U.S government is saying "no." 

• Attorney for Muthana's family: "She's a citizen"
• Birth certificate, Letter from United Nations show Muthana entitled to birthright citizenship
• Family prepared to make their case in federal court
• More Hillsborough County stories

President Trump tweeted "I have instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and he fully agrees, not to allow Muthana back into the country!”

Muthana’s family is pushing back. 

“She's not asking just to sneak back in or come back in as if nothing happened,” said Hassan Shibly, an attorney and spokesman for Muthana’s family. “She asking to turn herself into law enforcement and to be held accountable for her decisions.”

Secretary Pompeo released a statement that said "She is not a U.S. citizen and will not be admitted into the United States. She does not have any legal basis, no valid U.S. passport, no right to a passport, nor any visa travel to the United States." 

Shibly says that's simply not true. 

“She's a citizen,” he said.  “She was born in New Jersey and her father was not a diplomat at the time that she was born.”

Shibly provided us with a copy of Muthana's birth certificate and a letter from the United Nations, confirming her father who was in Foreign Service, had left that position at the time of her birth, meaning Muthana was entitled to birthright citizenship.

Birth certificate and letter from the United Nations that, according to attorney Hassan Shilby, show Hoda Muthana is entitled to birthright citizenship in the United States. (Courtesy Hassan Shilby)

Shibly acknowledges Muthana has not made the best choices in her support of the terror group and her inflammatory anti-American statements.

“I mean, she called me and her parents ‘infidels,'” he said. “She really was brainwashed by these monsters and went off the deep end and now, thank God, has recognized the error of her ways.”

But getting the U.S. government to recognize that is a hard sell.  Shibly said Muthana is now being used by President Trump to further an agenda.

“He is using this as an easy, low-hanging fruit case for him to push his executive authority, to assert his ability to strip people of citizenship without due process,” Shibly said. 

Muthana's family is now hoping to make that case in federal court.  A court date for a hearing has not been set.