Adam Abdullah is a 31-year-old auto mechanic from St. Paul, Minnesota, with no criminal record. He came to the United States seeking asylum in 2023, received a valid work permit and Social Security number, and showed up for every scheduled check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In December, federal agents stopped his car and detained him without ever explaining why they had targeted him.

Over the following nine months, Abdullah was moved between detention facilities in Minnesota, Kentucky, and Louisiana. Officials eventually told him he was finally being deported to Somalia. Instead, with his wrists and ankles shackled for the entire flight, he was diverted to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he has now spent roughly two weeks inside Camp Six — a facility built to hold terrorism suspects.

Abdullah has never been charged with any crime, let alone one related to terrorism. His attorney, Marc Prokosch, says this is the first time he's represented a client held at Guantanamo, and that short, possibly unprivileged phone calls make it nearly impossible to build a defense from that distance.

ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt, who is suing to stop the government from sending immigrants to Guantanamo, says the facts show detainees are held there for weeks at a time under "horrible conditions," not the brief refueling stop officials first described.

No one should be locked inside a military prison built for terrorism suspects simply for being an immigrant pulled over during a traffic stop. Abdullah followed every rule the government gave him. He deserves a fair legal process on U.S. soil, not indefinite confinement thousands of miles from his family.

Sign this petition to demand Adam Abdullah's immediate release from Guantanamo Bay and a fair hearing instead of indefinite detention.