“Ms. Hoda Muthana 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 to travel to the United States,” Pompeo said in a statement Wednesday.

Pompeo’s assertion contradicts her family and her Tampa-based lawyer, who insist she was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, in 1994.

Muthana told the New York Times in a story published Tuesday that she wanted to return home to the U.S. after surrendering to American troops last month.

According to the New York Times, Muthana had an American passport when she left the U.S. Pompeo’s statement did not make clear whether her citizenship had been revoked or if she was ever a U.S. citizen.

More than four years ago, she bought a plane ticket to Turkey with her college tuition money and was smuggled into Syria. The 24-year-old has been married to three ISIS fighters, two who were killed and a third she divorced.

After joining ISIS, she witnessed executions and urged others to join the group in social media posts that were critical of the U.S.

She told the Times she began having doubts about her decision to join the terrorist group during her second year in Syria, when she was married to her second husband and pregnant with her son.

“I ruined my life. I ruined my future,” she said.

“I realized how I didn’t appreciate or maybe even really understand how important the freedoms that we have in America are. I do now,” she wrote to a lawyer trying to help her return to the United States. “To say that I regret my past words, any pain that I caused my family and any concerns I would cause my country would be hard for me to really express properly.”

Pompeo’s statement also did not address a second woman in the New York Times story who holds dual citizenship in Canada and the U.S. and is seeking to return home after joining ISIS. Kimberly Gwen Polman lived in Canada before joining ISIS.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been pressuring Europe to take back foreign ISIS fighters captured in Syria as the U.S. prepares to withdraw its troops from the country. Europe has so far been reluctant to take back their citizens over potential legal challenges.

The U.K. refused to allow a London teenager back into the country after she said last week she wants to “come home” after joining ISIS four years ago.

Shamima Begum, 19, told the Times of London she did not regret running away to Syria, but fears for her newborn’s life. Begum gave birth over the weekend and has had two other children die in Syria.

The U.K. said it plans on revoking her British citizenship to prevent her from returning.

Article posted with permission from Pamela Geller