Mahad Mohamud is slowly readjusting to the heat, chaos and tension of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, after being deported from the US city of Minneapolis last month just as winter was closing in there.
Somalis know the 36-year-old as Garyaqaan - a word that can be translated as judge. This is the name he uses on TikTok, where he attracted almost half a million followers while he was abroad. Fans praised Mahad for his defence of his clan's interests - part of Somalia's lucrative TikTok roasting sub-culture.
But to those running the White House-linked Rapid Response 47 account, Mahad was a criminal illegal scumbag. In an October post it accused him of being involved in the kidnapping of French officials from a hotel in the Somali capital. Mahad has denied the allegation, saying that he was not in Mogadishu at the time. He was never convicted and the case was dropped.
He indicates that his detention by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency was triggered after a rival TikToker leaked his address. ICE told me they had two cases against me - one was entering the country illegally and the kidnapping of a French official, Mahad says. The kidnapping case was handled by the FBI, which cleared him.
Mahad's journey to the US began over a decade ago, first taking him to South Africa where a xenophobic attack forced him to flee. He traveled north to Brazil and eventually crossed into the US without documentation. After living in Minneapolis, he worked as an Uber driver and gained popularity on TikTok amidst the threats to his life from the militant group al-Shabab.
Mahad describes the moment immigration agents arrested him earlier this year. After being detained for months, his asylum claim was rejected, and he was deported back to Somalia. Despite reuniting with his three children after a decade, Mahad feels unsafe in Mogadishu due to ongoing threats from al-Shabab.
His experience sheds light on the harsh realities of deportation and the broader implications of US immigration policies, as many have noted the struggle immigrants face upon returning to regions still grappling with instability and conflict.
While Mahad has garnered some local support due to his TikTok fame, he continues to live in fear and wishes to return to the US. As political rhetoric around immigration intensifies, his story serves as a poignant reminder of the human consequences of deportation and asylum battles.
