For four years, Mahad Ali Hussein reported from the Somali region of Ethiopia, one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.
After multiple arrests and beatings by police, he fled the country in 2023.
For the last year, he’s been podcasting from Minnesota, part of an ecosystem of Somali journalists who cover the Somali diaspora, telling stories that would be suppressed back home.
Several of those journalists, including Mahad, are worried about their future following Donald Trump’s election to a second term. Trump has threatened mass deportations, and U.S. asylum claims have a yearslong backlog.
Robin Carr, an immigration attorney based in Minneapolis, represents at least two Somali journalists with pending asylum cases.
During Trump’s first term, “a lot of my Somali clients were terrified, as they are now,” she said. There were rumors of raids with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sweeping up asylum seekers. Deportation flights to Somalia also resumed.
“My clients, even those with pending cases who should have been safe, abandoned their cases and fled to Canada,” she said. Between 30 and 40 of her clients left, she said. Many never returned.
