St. Paul man arrested in ICE surge sent to Guantanamo Bay
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
Immigration authorities have sent a Somali man arrested in St. Paul to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Adam Abdullah was living legally in the Twin Cities when federal agents pulled him over in December.
Abdullah has no criminal record, but the government is holding him at a military prison set up for terrorism suspects.
Abdullah, 31, had only 10 minutes to speak with MPR News by phone from Guantanamo on Tuesday, but that was just enough time for him to explain what happened when federal agents stopped his vehicle on Dec. 12, at the start of what the Trump administration called Operation Metro Surge.
“When they come to me, and I ask them why you pulled me over, they say, ‘We are immigration, so give me your work permit,’” Abdullah said. “And I asked them, ‘Do you have a warrant, and what’s the reason to pull me over?’ And they say, ‘We don’t need a warrant; we are immigration, and we know you are Adam Abdullah.’”
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
Abdullah said that authorities never explained why they targeted him. He came to the U.S. as an asylum seeker in 2023, got a work permit and Social Security number, and made his living as an auto mechanic. He appeared regularly for check-ins with ICE.
Over the last nine months, Abdullah was moved from the Freeborn County Jail in Albert Lea, Minn., to a detention center in Covington, Ky., and then to Louisiana. After that, immigration officials told him that they would send him back to Somalia via Miami.
“From Miami they say OK we go to Somalia, but first we go to Cuba for refueling then we go to some other countries to Somalia,” Abdullah said.
His wrists and ankles were shackled throughout the hours-long flights, but he was never sent to Somalia. The stop in Cuba was not for refueling; he’s been at Guantanamo Bay’s Camp Six for about two weeks.
Besides the limits on phone calls, Abdullah said there’s also limited opportunity for exercise, but he is able to speak with other detainees.
“During the day we have a few hours together,” he said.
Abdullah said he’s among eight people from Somalia at Guantanamo Bay, including several arrested in the Twin Cities.
Immigration attorney Marc Prokosch said Abdullah is the first client he’s represented who’s being held at Guantanamo, and the case is proving to be a challenge.
“Calls are limited to five to 10 minutes, and we don’t even know if they’re confidential,” Prokosch said. “And that’s the only way that we can communicate with our clients is through these phone calls that may or may not be under attorney-client confidentiality.”
Policy analyst Yumna Rizvi with the Center for Victims of Torture said the government started sending immigration detainees to Guantanamo early last year under an executive order from President Donald Trump.
“This administration wants to conflate this threat of immigration with terrorism, so wants to create this idea that the individuals at Camp 6 are so terrible and so horrific,” Rizvi said.
The ACLU sued to stop the administration from sending migrants to Guantanamo. ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt argues that the government has no legal authority to detain immigrants overseas.
“The facts have shown that this is far from a refueling stop, that people are being held there for weeks, not months, and also under horrible conditions,” Gelernt said.
A judge in Washington is allowing the suit to proceed and set a hearing for Oct. 14.
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said that a recent flight to Guantanamo Bay included “some of the worst of the worst” “criminal illegal aliens.”
The department did not answer questions from MPR News about how many detainees it’s holding at Guantanamo or the reason for Abdullah’s arrest. A court record search in Minnesota turns up only two parking tickets that Abdullah received in early 2025 for failing to move his vehicle during snow emergencies.
