Trump Ends Temporary Protected Status for Thousands of Somalis

The Trump administration on Tuesday announced it will end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalia, which will affect thousands of Somalis living in the country.

“Temporary means temporary. Country conditions in Somalia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law’s requirement for Temporary Protected Status,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem 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,” she continued.

Reports suggest that there are 2,471 Somali nationals living in the country under TPS, with 1,383 with pending TPS applications.

Widespread fraud has reached billions of dollars of taxpayer-funded programs involving the Somali community across the country, especially in Minnesota. There are roughly 600 Somali nationals protected under TPS in the North Star State.

The United States first granted Somalia TPS in 1991 as part of an ongoing civil war in the country; President Joe Biden extended its TPS in September 2024.

Trump’s administration vowed to send hundreds of additional agents to Minneapolis, Minnesota in the wake of the fraud revelations.

Noem explained about the alleged criminal enterprise running in Minnesota:

It is ground zero for stealing taxpayer dollars and protecting criminals. We have had officers there for years. We’ve surged officers because we recognize and started to uncover the true corruption and theft that has happened. Billions and billions of dollars have been stolen from the American people and these are dollars that were supposed to go to programs to help the most vulnerable, to help people who were disabled or had mental health challenges, or children that were autistic, or to help people transition into their own home and to get back up on their feet. They stole the money from those people and used it to enrich their lives. And many of the times we’ve dug into this and it’s [enabled by] immigration fraud [within Somali clans]. They came into this country lying on their [identity] documents, why they could come and why they were eligible to use our [refugee] programs. [President] Joe Biden facilitated this all, and as we uncover more of this criminal activity, we’re going to continue to surge resources to make sure that this abuse of government funds and government [immigration] power no longer continues in Minnesota.

“This is an organized criminal enterprise, and we will get to the bottom of it,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday.