A 23-year-old Egyptian aviation student in California has agreed to voluntarily leave the U.S. after a Facebook post threatening Donald Trump was turned over to the FBI, leading to a Secret Service investigation of the student, and ultimately his detention by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE). On Feb. 3, Emadeldin Elsayed posted an article on Trump on Facebook along with the comment: “I literally don’t mind taking a lifetime sentence in jail for killing this guy, I would actually be doing the whole world a favor.” The Secret Service interviewed Elsayed the following day, according to his lawyer, Hani Bushra.
Here’s more from the New York Times:
After the Secret Service investigated his comments, Mr. Elsayed was expelled from flight school, which made him ineligible to continue studying in the country on a visa, even though prosecutors decided not to charge him… An immigration judge last Friday granted Mr. Elsayed a voluntary departure, a form of repatriation that spares him a formal deportation but returns him to Egypt escorted by federal agents, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Lawyers said it would be difficult for him to return.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s before the end of this week,” Bushra told Reuters. “Bushra said he doubted the government considered Elsayed an actual threat, as he was flying planes and taking classes at Universal Air Academy for more than a week after he was first interviewed.” “Rights advocates say they are alarmed by his case and see it as another sign of the U.S. government using the immigration system as a punitive tool against people, particularly Muslims, who are perceived as threats,” according to the Times.
