Trump Administration Will End Deportation Protections for Somalis

The temporary protections, which are meant to help migrants who cannot safely return to their countries, are expected to expire for Somalis on March 17.

The Trump administration is ending deportation protections for more than 2,000 migrants from Somalia, homeland security officials said on Tuesday.

The end of the program comes as federal officials are carrying out an intense immigration enforcement blitz in Minnesota, the state with the largest population of Somalis in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security is dispatching roughly 3,000 officers and agents to Minnesota, a move that federal officials say is meant to crack down on fraud and illegal immigration.

The termination affects 2,471 Somali nationals who are able to live and work in the United States through the program, called Temporary Protected Status, according to data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. About 1,380 Somalis in the country have pending applications.

The program, which is meant to help migrants who cannot safely return to their countries, is expected to end on March 17.

The protections were first authorized in the early 1990s, when the Somali government collapsed and the nation descended into civil war. Although T.P.S. is meant to be temporary, the protections for Somalis have been extended many times because of ongoing armed conflict and other safety threats in Somalia.

In justifying the termination, homeland security officials said that conditions in Somalia had improved and allowing Somalis to stay would not be in the “national interests” of the United States.

“Temporary means temporary,” Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said in a statement. “Further, allowing Somali nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interests. We are putting Americans first.”

A group of state legislators representing the Minneapolis region criticized the announcement on Tuesday, saying it would “place longstanding Minnesota residents — who have lived, worked, and raised families here legally — at immediate risk of losing their lawful status and being forced into uncertainty.”

“T.P.S. exists because conditions in designated countries meet clear statutory standards related to conflict and instability,” the legislators said in a statement. “Ending these protections does not change the realities on the ground abroad, but it does create fear, disrupt families, and destabilize communities here at home.”

The Trump administration has moved to end T.P.S. for hundreds of thousands of migrants from countries including Afghanistan, Cameroon, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Syria and Venezuela. Some of those efforts have prompted concerns that migrants would be returning to unstable countries that still face conflict and violence.

In a social media post, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials urged Somalis covered by the program to leave the United States.

“Leave the U.S. on your own terms between NOW and March 17th … ,” the agency said in the post, “or receive a visit from ICE. The choice is yours.”

The announcement to end the program came after President Trump pledged in November to end the protections for Somalis. Mr. Trump has repeatedly attacked Somalis living in the country, saying he does not want them in the United States.

Mr. Trump said in an interview with The New York Times last week that federal officials were taking steps to strip some naturalized Americans of their citizenship, particularly those of Somali descent. Although he said the effort was not limited to Somalis, he declined to specify other groups being targeted.

His administration’s focus on Minnesota in recent weeks stems in large part from a fraud scheme that siphoned money from social service programs in the state in recent years. More than 90 people have been charged in the federal fraud investigations, and Justice Department officials have said many are of Somali descent.

Roughly 80,000 people of Somali ancestry live in Minnesota, and a majority are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents.

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security said it was reviewing thousands of refugee cases in Minnesota that had already been approved, a move that prompted backlash among immigrant advocates who said those refugees had already been through an extensive screening process.

Other federal agencies, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Labor, have also announced new investigations and other efforts they say are meant to root out fraud in Minnesota.

Mitch Smith contributed reporting.

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