Old Dominion University shooter should have lost citizenship: Guy Benson
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Washington Examiner senior columnist Guy Benson argues that the Old Dominion University shooter, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh-a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone who spent six years in the Virginia National Guard-should have been denaturalized after attempting to join ISIS. Jalloh killed one person and injured two during the ODU incident and was killed in the shooting; Benson points out that he had previously pleaded guilty in 2017 to providing material support to a terrorist institution, for which he received an 11-year sentence and five years of supervised release before being released in 2024. Benson contends that citizenship should not be an “open-ended right” for someone who tried to join a terrorist group, calling for denaturalization and earlier deportation as policy. FBI director Kash Patel described the attack as an act of terrorism, reinforcing the article’s focus on tightening responses to terrorism linked to naturalized citizens. The piece situates this case within a broader debate about immigration policy and denaturalization.
Old Dominion University shooter should have been denaturalized: Guy Benson
Washington Examiner senior columnist Guy Benson argued the shooter at Old Dominion University should have lost his citizenship after he tried to join ISIS.
Authorities identified Mohamed Bailor Jalloh as the suspect in the shooting at Old Dominion University that left one victim dead and two injured on Thursday. Jalloh was also killed.
“What on Earth are we doing in this country?” Benson said on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom on Friday. “I feel like, yes, he became a citizen; what is the argument? I’m genuinely curious, what is the argument against denaturalizing someone who was welcomed into this country, then chose to go to try to join ISIS?”
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“Why was he still here?” Benson asked.
Jalloh, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone who spent six years in the Virginia National Guard, pleaded guilty in 2017 for attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization.
He was sentenced to 11 years in prison and five years of supervised release. Jalloh was released in 2024.
Benson said Jalloh “forfeited his right” to his citizenship after he tried to join ISIS.
“If this person is guilty of trying to join ISIS, why don’t we put him in prison for as long as humanely possible and as soon as we know that prison sentence is expiring, we get him on the first plane out back to wherever he came from,” he said. “Whatever country that might be.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said the shooting at Old Dominion University is being investigated as an act of terrorism.
Benson said Jalloh’s citizenship should not have been an “open-ended right.”
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“That person should have absolutely forfeited his right to remain an American citizen,” he said. “This is not some open-ended right that he has forever, or at least it should not be.”
“I genuinely do not understand what is the argument against denaturalizing someone like that,” Benson added.
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