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Photo by Trevor Hagan/The Canadian Press/File

Sponsored by his brother, he and his mother moved to the United States in 2001, but soon after arriving in Minneapolis his brother left and his mother died. With no assistance as a teen, he started drinking and he turned to crime to get by, he said.

It led to a string of arrests in the United States: for robbery, stealing cars, assault, drunk driving, and entering a building without consent with intent to steal.

In 2017, panic was spreading through the Somali community. Trump’s rhetoric against migrants was heating up. Mohamed heard of other Somalis having their status revoked by the Trump administration, he said.

He decided to join other expats heading to Canada. He walked across the border to claim refugee status on April 10, 2017.

That same day he made an asylum claim at the Emerson Port of Entry. A Canada Border Services Agency officer immediately flagged him as inadmissible due to the past convictions. One month later, the Immigration and Refugee Board confirmed he was inadmissible for serious criminality.

Mohamed requested a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment, a process known as a PRRA that could halt his deportation if it would put him at risk of persecution or his life in jeopardy. He argued he faces a grave threat from al-Shabaab extremists, an al-Qaida affiliate, because his tattoos reveal his Westernization.

This past June, his PRRA was rejected. The immigration officer accepted that Mohamed would have a tough time adjusting to life in Somalia — a country he had not seen in 24 years — but would not be in untenable danger.

This month, in a decision recently published by the Federal Court, Justice Glennys McVeigh ruled the decision to send Mohamed back to Somalia was a reasonable one.

• Email: ahumphreys@nationalpost.com | Twitter: AD_Humphreys