A woman born in New Jersey, who fled the United States to join the Islamic State five years ago, said she "regrets every single thing" and has fought to return home despite the loss of her citizenship.

Hoda Muthana, 25, left her family home in Alabama in 2014 after making contact with ISIS fighters through social media. Muthana had gained a large following on Twitter and expressed anti-Western ideology consistent with that of ISIS, or Daesh, including encouraging jihadis to "go on drivebys, and spill all of their blood."

Muthana was born to a Yemeni diplomat in 1994 and was issued an American passport despite some confusion about when her father's diplomatic post officially came to end. The U.S. government argues that Muthana's status as a U.S. citizen was issued in error because her father was in the country as a foreign official at the time of her birth. Muthana's lawyers and family claim that she was born after her father's post ended when the family had been issued refugee status due to unrest in Yemen.

Upon arriving in Syria to join ISIS in 2014, Muthana burned her U.S. passport and declared herself a part of the caliphate. She married an Australian-born ISIS fighter who was killed in 2015 and subsequently married a Tunisian fighter who was also killed, but with whom she had a son. Muthana married one more fighter, whom she divorced.

As the ISIS enclave in Syria collapsed, Muthana surrendered to coalition forces in January 2019 and asked to come back to the U.S. in February. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, through the instruction of President Trump, publicly denied reentry to Muthana and her two-year-old son. "Ms. Hoda Muthana is not a U.S. citizen and will not be admitted into the United States," Pompeo said. “She’s a terrorist."

Muthana claimed she no longer espoused the views and values she readily shared when she fled the U.S. for Syria in 2014. Having said she "regrets every single thing," Muthana said to NBC News that the refugee camps she was forced to live in after her surrender felt increasingly unsafe for her and her young child. She also claimed it was "hard to get up in the morning."

Muthana said that, if allowed to return to the U.S., she would be open to facing justice for her actions. "They can watch over me 24/7, I’d be OK with that," she said. "I want my son to be around my family, I want to go to school, I want to have a job and I want to have my own car."