US judge to consider return of US-born IS bride amid citizenship row

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed last week that Muthana was not a US citizen and would not be allowed to return to the country, despite her having been born in New Jersey and raised in Alabama.

Ahmed Ali Muthana, the father of the 24-year-old who says she regrets joining the extremist group's so-called "caliphate", filed an emergency lawsuit against the Trump administration last week asking it to affirm his daughter was a US citizen.

"Upon her return to the United States, Mr. Muthana's daughter is prepared and willing to surrender to any charges the United States Justice Department finds appropriate and necessary," said the lawsuit filed with the US District Court in Washington.

A federal judge now says he will agree to consider the lawsuit and Muthana's return to the US with her 18-month-old son, AP reported.

Read more: Father of US-born woman who joined IS sues over citizenship

She is currently living in the al-Hol refugee camp in northern Syria, alongside almost 50,000 other people, most of whom are women and children who recently fled from the last pocket of Islamic State territory in Baghouz, eastern Syria.

Conditions at the camp are rapidly deteriorating and supplies are becoming scarce as its population booms, humanitarian organisations have said.

A hearing on the case is scheduled for Monday.

Pompeo, on the orders of US President Donald Trump, claimed Muthana was not a US citizen as her father was a Yemeni diplomat in the country at the time of her birth. The US grants birthright citizenship to all children born on its soil, with the exception of the children of diplomats.

Hassan Shibly, the family's lawyer, has denied those claims, providing documentation from the US Mission to the United Nations stating Ahmed Ali Muthana left his diplomatic post one month before Hoda's birth. As such, he argued that Muthana was entitled to birthright citizenship under the US Consitution.

The lawsuit stated that the State Department accepted the UN letter and granted Muthana a passport. It also said Hoda Muthana was also entitled to citizenship through her mother who became a US permanent resident, anticipating the loss of diplomatic status, in July 1994.

It is extremely difficult for the United States to strip a person of citizenship, a step taken by Britain in the case of homegrown extremists such as Shamima Begum.

Trump's refusal to return Muthana to the US came even though he is pushing other Western countries to repatriate hundreds of suspected Islamic State members as the United States prepares to withdraw troops from Syria.

Agencies contributed to this report.

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