President Trump on Friday said he is ending deportation protections for Somali immigrants in Minnesota.
The president wrote on his Truth Social platform that he was “terminating effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota.”
Mr. Trump said, without providing evidence, that “Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State.”
He also accused Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, without proof, of overseeing a state that had become a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”
“Send them back to where they came from,” he said. “It’s OVER!”
In response, Walz said in a social media post on X, “It’s not surprising that the President has chosen to broadly target an entire community. This is what he does to change the subject.”
The president did not provide further details on the move.
TPS is a federal program that allows migrants from unstable countries to live and work legally in the U.S.
Somalia’s TPS designation runs through March 17, 2026, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency that is part of the Department of Homeland Security. As of March 31, there are 705 Somali immigrants in the U.S. approved for TPS, according to Congress.gov. Minnesota also has the largest Somali population in the U.S., the Associated Press reports.
CBS News has reached out to DHS and Walz for comment.
The Trump administration has also moved to end TPS protections for Afghan, Venezuelan, Syrian and South Sudanese nationals. Those actions have faced significant legal challenges.
Republican Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, who represents Cold Spring, said in a written statement that she’s “glad” that Mr. Trump recognizes the “seriousness of the fraud problem” in the state.
“The unfortunate reality is that far too many individuals who were welcomed into this country have abused the trust and support that was extended to them, and Minnesota taxpayers have suffered billions of dollars in consequences as a result,” Demuth said, without providing evidence.
Jaylani Hussein, president of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations decried the move Friday, saying in a statement that the group was “deeply disappointed that the administration has chosen to end the Somali TPS program in Minnesota, a legal lifeline for families who have built their lives here for decades.”
“This is not just a bureaucratic change; it is a political attack on the Somali and Muslim community driven by Islamophobic and hateful rhetoric,” Hussein said. “We strongly urge President Trump to reverse this misguided decision.”