KENNEBUNK — For Hossam Mohamed, living in Maine meant freedom: to love whom he chooses, and to live his life out of the shadows. 

A gay man and LGBTQ+ activist from Egypt, Mohamed — known to friends as “Maha” — came to the U.S. in 2023, hoping to find a safe haven from persecution.

For a while, he found it.

In August, Mohamed was detained by federal immigration officials, who told him it was because his visa had expired. Since then, Mohamed’s friends say he has been moved to six detention facilities in the space of eight months, and that they have become increasingly concerned about his treatment and health.

They also say Mohamed’s repeated transfers have made it difficult to fund his commissary account or check on him, leaving them with more questions than answers — and prompting them to call for his release.

For now, his monthslong absence has left a hole in the community he built.

“He had a lot of really positive energy,” said Marylyn Wentworth, founder and former principal of The New School in Kennebunk, where Mohamed volunteered before he was detained. “ The kids totally loved him.”

And if Mohamed is sent back to Egypt, friends fear the worst because of his sexuality and activism.

“Deporting him could be a death sentence,” said John Messer, his sponsor from Hope Acts, a Portland nonprofit dedicated to helping immigrants. 

MOVED AROUND

Mohamed came to the U.S. on a J-1 visa through an exchange program with the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. Soon after he arrived, he applied for asylum status, fearful of retribution if he were to return to Egypt, his friend Ellen Callaway said.

Messer said Mohamed was beaten and arrested in Egypt because of his sexuality and his pro-LGBTQ+ activism. 

Callaway said Mohamed struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in Egypt and hasn’t always coped with it well. She believes his PTSD is to blame for a recent charge of operating under the influence — and that the charge may have brought him to immigration authorities’ attention.

Mohamed lived with Callaway at her Kennebunk home and was arrested in her backyard.

Spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to questions about Mohamed’s case by a Wednesday evening deadline.

Callaway said Mohamed recently hired a new lawyer to help with his case.

Mohamed is being held at an ICE detention center in Houston, according to his friends and ICE’s online detainee tracker. Prior to his arrival there, friends say he was moved across New England from an ICE facility in Scarborough to jails and detention centers in Stratton, New Hampshire; Chelmsford, Massachusetts; Plymouth, Massachusetts; and Central Falls, Rhode Island. 

When Callaway talks about Mohamed, every detail is filled to the brim about the joy he brought to his community. She described him as “just a jovial person” who dances wherever he goes and a charismatic presence in the life of everyone he met. 

More than anything, she wants Mohamed to have a fair trial.

‘PRETTY BLEAK’

Before coming to the U.S., where he has worked three jobs — at Smoke BBQ, Wallingford Farm and Hannaford — to make ends meet, Mohamed was a history teacher. Wentworth, from The New School, spotted his passion for education as soon as she met him.

“He must have been a fabulous teacher on his own,” she said. 

Wentworth said when Mohamed began volunteering, he helped her teach a geography class, and his knowledge taught the students more about Egypt than they would be able to learn from any other teacher. 

Sela Howard, a 19-year-old senior at The New School, said Mohamed has had a major impact on her and her fellow students, teaching them about his culture and serving as a source of both knowledge and laughter.

Howard said she couldn’t believe it when she heard he had been detained. 

She and many of his other supporters have started sporting “Maha Strong” shirts and joining his court hearings over Zoom to bolster his morale.

Messer said in the few times he’s seen Mohamed since August, he’s looked worse each time, though he’ll still try to smile. “ He’s lost so much weight and there’s black circles under his eyes,” he said.

“The last phone call was … ” Messer stopped for a second, “ … it was pretty bleak.” 

Messer said the treatment Mohamed has been afforded is inhumane. His friend is suffering, and it feels impossible to get answers. 

“ They’ve jerked him around and drug him around from state to state, prison to prison, and with no explanations,” Messer said. “And it shouldn’t be that way. It really shouldn’t be that way.”