Thousands of Somalis Face Deportation After Trump Administration Removes Protections

The Trump administration is ending the temporary protected status designation for Somalia, a move that will affect several thousand Somalis currently living in the U.S. 

“Temporary means temporary,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.  

“Country conditions in Somalia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law’s requirement for Temporary Protected Status,” the secretary continued. “Further, allowing Somali nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interests. We are putting Americans first.” 

There are 2,471 Somali nationals living in the U.S. under temporary protected status and another 1,383 have pending applications, according to Fox News, which first reported the news Tuesday morning.  

With the removal of the protections on Tuesday, Somalis living in the U.S. under the designation have until March 17 to leave the country.  

Somalis were first granted the status in the U.S. in 1991 amid ongoing civil war in Somalia. The Biden administration renewed and extended the designation for 18 months in 2024.  

The Trump administration’s decision to end the designation for Somalia follows reports of mass fraud schemes involving Somalis in the U.S., particularly in Minnesota. 

A federal investigation in recent years uncovered a multimillion-dollar fraud operation involving the Minneapolis nonprofit Feeding Our Future. Officials have also found fraud in recent years in a Minnesota housing program and a program claiming to provide services to children with Autism. 

A federal prosecutor recently estimated that Medicaid fraud in the state has topped $9 billion. 

Of the 98 people that have been charged in Minnesota fraud cases, 85 are of Somali descent, according to the House Oversight Committee.

About 600 Somali nationals live in Minnesota under temporary protected status, Fox News Digital reports. 

Most recently, online content creator Nick Shirley released a 42-minute video appearing to show daycares in Minnesota that had no children but had received millions of dollars in government funding. 

“We uncovered over $110,000,000 in one day,” Shirley claimed. 

The message to Somalians living in the U.S. under TPS is “clear,” according to DHS. “Go back to your own country, or we’ll send you back ourselves.”