“Just Like Kidnapping”

In late August, the Trump administration loaded 12 Somali immigrants onto a plane and flew them to an ICE facility at Guantanamo Bay. “Nobody tell us that we’re going to Guantanamo Bay,” Sakariye Abdi Mohamed told journalist Amanda Moore in a phone call last month from the infamous detention facility. “Just like kidnapping.”

Gitmo, Mohamed said, was “the worst place ever I’ve been in my life.”

The Department of Homeland Security has denied mistreating the Guantanamo prisoners—and it insists the Somali men sent there are “some of the worst of the worst.” But we found no evidence that Mohamed had been accused of any wrongdoing. “I don’t have no criminal record,” he told Moore. “I don’t have no tickets.”

A few weeks later, ICE deported Mohamed to Somalia—he was shackled for nearly 40 hours during the trip, he says. In a new video for Mother Jones, he provides gut-wrenching details about his time at Guantanamo and his efforts to rebuild his life in Mogadishu. DHS didn’t respond to Moore’s follow-up questions about Mohamed’s allegations. You can watch her report above.