White House ends TPS protections for Somalis

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - DECEMBER 4: Signage outside the Cedar Cultural Center says "We Love Our Somali Neighbors" on December 4, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Trump administration has targeted the Somali immigrant community as ICE increased operations in Minnesota this week. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Signage outside the Cedar Cultural Center says ‘We Love Our Somali Neighbors’ in Minneapolis, Minnesota

(Image credit: Stephen Maturen / Getty Images)

What happened

The Trump administration said Tuesday it will strip Somali immigrants of their Temporary Protective Status. This latest move in President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign was announced amid his controversial immigration operation in Minnesota, the state with the largest population of Somali Americans.

Who said what

“Temporary means temporary,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement Tuesday. “Allowing Somali nationals” to remain in the U.S. runs “contrary to our national interests,” she said, and circumstances in Somalia “have improved to the point that it no longer meets” the criteria for TPS status. Trump last month called Somali immigrants “garbage” and said they “come from hell.”

The “hundreds of people” affected by Tuesday’s announcement represent a “small subset of immigrants with TPS protections,” The Associated Press said. But the White House has also threatened to “revoke the citizenship of any naturalized immigrant” found guilty of fraud, “singling out those from Somalia,” said USA Today. And in recent days, ICE agents have “arrested dozens of refugees in Minnesota,” mainly from Somalia, who entered the U.S. legally after “rigorous vetting,” The New York Times said. “Most of the detainees,” including children and mothers separated from their toddlers, “were being transferred to facilities in Texas,” lawyers and immigrant advocates told the Times.

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What next?

“Somali nationals with TPS are now required to leave the United States by March 17,” when the latest extension of their protections expires, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said on social media. If they don’t leave on their “own terms,” DHS said in a separate post, they will “receive a visit from ICE.”

Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.