Congress created Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to briefly assist those in need. Shakespeare warned, “Ingratitude is monstrous; and for the multitude to be ingrateful, were to make a monster of the multitude.” In the case of TPS, “multitude” is correct. As of January 2025, approximately 1.4 million foreign nationals in the United States were shielded from removal under the program.
The Trump administration decided to terminate TPS for several countries, with Somalia as the most recent. That choice is the right step in a long-overdue course correction for an immigration program that previous administrations exploited far past its statutory purpose.
Somalia was first designated for TPS in 1991, following political turmoil and the outbreak of civil war. At the time, granting temporary protection to Somali nationals already present in the United States was an act of kindness.
Over three decades later, Somalis remained dependent on the charity extended to them by the United States and distorted the TPS program beyond recognition from its original legislative intent.
Past Administrations Haven’t Followed the Law
Temporary Protected Status is governed by Section 244 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1254a. According to federal law, TPS may be granted only when extraordinary and temporary conditions prevent safe return to a designated country. It applies only to individuals physically present in the United States at the time of designation. Foreigners who arrive after the fact are ineligible.
TPS is not an open-ended invitation or a pathway to citizenship.
Yet over time, administrations treated TPS as anything but temporary. Excluding the first Trump administration, nearly every president extended or unlawfully redesignated TPS as a knee-jerk reaction, willfully pushing the program past its expiration date rather than enforcing the law.
Congress imposed a mandatory review at 18 months precisely to prevent this outcome. And yet, as the deadline approached, bureaucratic habit won repeatedly, turning 18 months into 35 years in the case of Somalia.
Section 244 does not authorize redesignation. It only permits designation, extension, and termination. The executive branch has not authority to cite the same emergency decades later to grant work authorization and removal protection to individuals who were not present in the United States when the original designation was made. That practice has no basis in statute and undermines our immigration system.
The Case of the Minneapolis Somalis
The consequences are rampant throughout the nation. Minneapolis is home to the largest Somali community in the world outside Somalia. In Minnesota, federal investigators have alleged that around $9 billion in Medicaid claims since 2018 may be fraudulent, potentially marking the largest scam in U.S. history.
Many of the defendants charged in those cases are of Somali descent and several have pled guilty in court. Not all TPS recipients participate in criminal conduct, but Minneapolis serves as a case study on how abuse of immigration programs causes widespread reliance on the public benefit system created to serve Americans, not foreigners.
The costs are not always overt such as fraud; they also take hidden tolls. Minnesota’s English learner education funding doubled from $5.3 million in 2003 to $10.8 million in 2023, with Somali being the most popular first language in several schools besides Spanish.
Long-running TPS designations create economic strains on health care, education, and other social services that were never intended to be permanent obligations.
It is no longer solely about a group of people who were offered brief protection in the ‘90s. According to the Department of Homeland Security, roughly 2,500 Somali nationals with TPS or pending applications will be affected by the termination.
Those figures do not account for children and grandchildren born during the program’s 35-year existence at the taxpayer’s expense. The beneficiaries should have departed the country in the 1990s if perpetual redesignations had not occurred.
Cleaning Up the Biden Abuse of TPS
The Trump administration is trying to clean up the mess inherited by Kamala Harris’s open borders and immigration failures. The Biden administration deliberately expanded TPS, contrary to American security interests and granted TPS to over 1.4 million aliens by January 2025.
President Joe Biden even urged Congress to pass legislation allowing TPS recipients to apply for green cards, highlighting how the administration viewed TPS as amnesty despite the law saying otherwise.
Former Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, extended and redesignated Somalia for TPS through March 2026, allowing new applicants and issuing automatic employment authorization extensions.
The massive expansion did not end with Somalia. TPS enrollment nearly quadrupled under the Biden administration, driven largely by new designations for Venezuela in 2021 and 2023. As of January 2025, more than 614,000 Venezuelans were protected under TPS, making up around half of all beneficiaries.
A House report found that 95% were not admitted on visas and entered either illegally or through humanitarian parole—which is not a formal admission into the United States according to federal law.
The Supreme Court reiterated that truth in Sanchez v. Mayorkas in 2021, holding that TPS does not constitute an admission to the United States and does not translate into a pathway for lawful permanent residence. Any attempt to treat TPS otherwise reflects executive ignorance of both the legislative and judicial branch.
Making Temporary Mean Temporary Again
Ending TPS for Somalia means that “temporary” will once again mean temporary. It also emphasizes that the United States will not reward aliens who try to override our laws.
Congress is also responsible for allowing TPS to be manipulated. Lawmakers created the program and failed to enforce its limits. Congress should codify clear protections for Americans, including restricting eligibility to aliens present at the time of the triggering event, outlawing redesignation, capping active TPS periods at 18 months in absence of extraordinary justification, and requiring recipients to seek other immigration benefits if eligible or depart within one month of TPS termination.
Generosity is ruined by entitlement and mercy without limits enables a monster. TPS was meant to reflect American compassion without sacrificing the rule of law or public safety.