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The United States said Tuesday it will end Temporary Protected Status for Somalis, requiring thousands to leave the country by mid-March as the Trump administration intensifies immigration enforcement focused in part on Minnesota.
Somalia’s TPS designation expires March 17, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“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,” Homeland Security 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 added.
Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the United States, estimated at about 80,000 people, and has been a focal point of recent immigration raids and fraud investigations. The stepped-up enforcement has triggered protests, including after an immigration officer fatally shot a woman last week while attempting to arrest her for obstruction.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X that it was “ENDING Temporary Protected Status for Somalians in the United States.”
“Our message is clear. Go back to your own country, or we’ll send you back ourselves,” the post said.
TPS allows nationals of certain countries affected by war or disaster to remain in the United States temporarily and obtain work authorization.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump again criticized Democratic leaders in Minnesota on his Truth Social account.
“Minnesota Democrats love the unrest that anarchists and professional agitators are causing because it gets the spotlight off of the 19 Billion Dollars that was stolen by really bad and deranged people,” Trump wrote. “FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”
Federal officials have tied the crackdown to a major public benefit fraud case involving Minnesota’s Somali community. Prosecutors have charged 98 people in connection with a scheme to divert roughly $300 million in public funds intended for free meals for children that prosecutors say were never provided.
