By Staff Reporter

An Egyptian student pilot who joked on social media about killing Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump is to permanently leave the United States.

Emadeldin Elsayed came to the attention of the FBI after his post in early February aroused the concerns of his flight school, the Universal Air Academy in El Monte, California.

“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,” Elsayed wrote on his Facebook page, prompting the school to expel him from the $40,000 course.

The 23-year-old was subsequently detained for over a month after his visa was revoked, and told US Secret Service agents in interview that he did not plan to hurt Trump or anyone else, but wrote the post in frustration at Trump’s inflammatory comments about Muslims.

Although Elsayed is not facing any criminal charges over the posting, Judge Kevin Riley denied his appeal to be freed on bail at two separate deportation hearings, and he accepted to leave the country voluntarily by 5 July to avoid being deported, according to his lawyer Hani Bushra.

Migrant rights groups condemned the decision to revoke Elsayed’s visa, claiming the US government is using the immigration system as a means to penalise people such as Muslims who are seen as threats to national security.

“He’s being detained, I think, primarily because he’s a Muslim and he’s a Middle Easterner,” Bushra told the Associated Press. “This is not how our system should work. Their mentality is ‘Whatever we can use to get this guy out of the country we can use.’”

Describing Elsayed’s detention as illegal, the lawyer added that the situation has caused harm not only to his client but also to Muslims in the US. 

“He is devastated and he is smart enough to know that he is going to pay for this mistake for a long, long time,” said Bushra. “This kid is going to become a poster boy for hating America.”