The United States government announced Tuesday it will terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somali nationals, setting a March 17 departure deadline amid escalating immigration enforcement measures targeting Somali communities. The Department of Homeland Security declared via social media that it would end protections that have shielded Somalis from deportation to conflict-affected regions.
The policy shift comes amid intensified Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Minnesota, home to approximately 80,000 Somali residents—the largest Somali community in the nation. Recent weeks have seen masked officers conducting vehicle checkpoints and enforcement sweeps that have reportedly resulted in approximately 2,000 arrests. During one such operation, officers were witnessed forcibly removing individuals from vehicles.
Tensions escalated dramatically last week when an ICE officer fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good during an operation in Minneapolis. The incident has sparked protests and led to the resignation of three federal prosecutors who allegedly faced pressure to focus investigations on the victim’s widow rather than the shooting itself.
Administration officials have justified the crackdown by citing a massive public benefits fraud case involving $300 million in diverted funds. Federal prosecutors have charged 98 individuals, with 85 identified as being of Somali descent. Fifty-seven defendants have already been convicted in the scheme.
Republican leadership, including President Trump, has accused Minnesota Democratic authorities of ignoring previous warnings about the fraud due to the community’s ethnic composition. On his Truth Social platform, Trump promised ‘reckoning and retribution’ for Minnesota while alleging Democrats benefit from diverted attention away from the scandal.
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American elected to Congress, condemned the administration’s tactics, stating: ‘Trump is trying to scare them and terrorize them every single day… Somalis are not intimidated.’
Minnesota state authorities have sought a temporary restraining order to halt ICE operations pending judicial review, while community organizers describe the situation as targeted persecution against Somali residents through weaponized federal agencies.