Islamic Rights Group Wants U.S. Teen Stuck In Kuwait Back Home

A Muslim rights group based in D.C. says the United States is blocking the return of a teenager from Alexandria, Va., who's being held in Kuwait. The U.S. government has not commented on the claim, and the council is considering legal action if it doesn't receive an explanation.

An attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Gadeir Abbas, says 19-year-old Gulet Mohamed had been overseas for nearly nine months, studying Arabic in Somalia, Yemen and Kuwait. But in December, when he tried to renew his visitor visa for a third time, he was taken by deportation officials.

Abbas says Muhammad's family was eventually advised to purchase the teen a ticket back to the United States, but when he tried to board the flight, he was turned away.

"This is the government deliberately not following clear commands of the law...and depriving an American citizen of really one of the most basic rights that he has: to reside in the United States," he says.

Abbas says the council will file a case in federal district court if it doesn't receive an explanation from the U.S. government.