You are known by your associates.
Ok, so he can’t fly but he can take a ship. Or easier yet, fly into Mexico and cross over with all the other OTM illegals at the border. There’s ways to get here and with his Yemen buddies’ influence, I’m sure he can think of other ways. Sounds like he’s whining to make a point with the media or this is some sort of dry run scenario to find holes in the system.
If you read the article, his passport was canceled and replaced w/ one that only allows travel to the US, so he couldn’t fly to Canada or Mexico and then walk across the border even if he wanted to.
If he is completely innocent, I’m sympathetic to his plight because I’ve done my share of international travel and some of the US Border bureaucracy is downright Kafka-esque.