AI-generated summary
The podcast series “Mohamed vs. ICE – An American Nightmare” was created as a collaboration between “What Now?” and the investigative department of ZEIT. It focuses on individual migration fates in the context of deportations in the USA and possible developments in Europe.
Rabbiatu is in Sierra Leone for just a few days. She then manages to escape to another country in West Africa. She has been there for eleven months now. She hardly leaves the house. Everything here is foreign to her.
Mohamed takes care of his sick grandparents alone in Maryland. He is trying to somehow make payments on the house he bought with his mother. He speaks to lawyers and NGOs to draw attention to the situation of migrants. Hundreds of thousands of families in the USA are currently being torn apart by deportations. And there are signs that something like this could soon happen in Europe too.
“Mohamed against ICE – an American nightmare” is a podcast series from “What Now?” and the ZEIT investigative department.
Moderation, script and research: Mounia Meiborg
Research: Yassin Musharbash, Martín Steinhagen, Kai Biermann, Sascha Venohr, forbidden stories
Editors: Helena Schmidt and André Dér-Hörmeyer
Production and sound design: Joscha Grunewald and Markus Brille
Project management: Constanze Kainz
Thanks to: Andrea Böhm, Bastian Berbner, Hannah Grünewald, Celine Rolle, Emma Möllenbrock
You can listen to all episodes of “Mohamed against ICE – an American nightmare” with a digital or podcast subscription to ZEIT.
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
The podcast series will lead to further discussions about migration policy in Europe.
Possible · Within months
In the ZDF morning magazine “Moma,” a viewer from a community band unexpectedly responded to the question about the hottest summer since recordings began with “Nice” and “Yes, it was bearable,” which left moderator Benjamin Stöwe briefly speechless and embarrassed to have to continue the live broadcast.
Rabbiatu Kuyateh fled Sierra Leone to the United States over 30 years ago and works as a nurse with two jobs. She and her son Mohamed Al Ghali bought a house in Maryland, where they live with their parents in need of care. At ICE's annual appointment on July 1, 2025, Mohamed is left alone and begins a months-long battle against the immigration system that is tearing hundreds of thousands of families apart. The podcast series “Mohamed vs. ICE – An American Nightmare” by What Now? and the investigative department of ZEIT documents this conflict.

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