DOJ seeks to strip citizenship from Minneapolis al-Shabaab recruit

The Justice Department has moved to strip the U.S. citizenship of Salah Osman Ahmed, a naturalized Minneapolis man, accusing him of concealing ties to the Somali militant group al-Shabaab. Salah Osman Ahmed

Federal prosecutors say Ahmed, 43, naturalized in 2007 and pleaded guilty in 2009 to providing material support to terrorists. They say he admitted conspiring in Minneapolis in October 2007 to raise money and recruits. He then traveled on Dec. 6, 2007 to Somalia, where authorities say he received weapons training and helped build a training camp. Ahmed served roughly three years in prison and was released from supervised release in March 2022. The Department of Justice now says he procured naturalization by concealment or willful misrepresentation. Ahmed's attorney, Daniel Gerdts, called the effort "ridiculous" and said the DOJ is wrong on both the facts and the law.

The episode traces back to December 2006, when Ethiopian troops entered Somalia and helped create the conditions that produced al-Shabaab. Recruiting in the Somali diaspora surged, and Minnesota — home to the largest Somali-American community — became a focal point beginning in 2007. More than 20 Somali-Americans from Minnesota have left the state to train and fight for al-Shabaab since 2007.

Justice Department officials frame Ahmed's case as part of a broader denaturalization push; the agency lists him as one of 12 people nationwide accused of concealing terrorist support, war crimes, espionage, sexual abuse or other crimes during naturalization. Historically, the government filed 305 denaturalization cases between 1990 and 2017 and filed more than 120 cases between 2017 and late 2025. Under U.S. law, naturalization can be revoked if it was procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.