The Trump administration is ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somali immigrants, making it easier to deport thousands of people from the US.
“Country conditions in Somalia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law’s requirement,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.
TPS prevents US officials from deporting immigrants to countries deemed unsafe. Starting March 17, around 2,500 Somalis will lose their work authorisations and legal status, making them eligible for deportation.
President Donald Trump has made it known he does not want Somali immigrants in the US, and has launched a major effort in Minneapolis to detain and deport people in the country illegally.
“Temporary means temporary,” Noem said in a statement to the BBC. “Further, allowing Somali nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interests. We are putting Americans first.”
Congress established TPS in 1990 to give refuge to people from countries that experienced war or environmental disasters. Immigrants with TPS authorisation are typically allowed to live and work legally in the US.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told the BBC that there are 2,471 Somali nationals with TPS, and 1,383 people with pending applications.
DHS responded to an online post about the announcement that the protective status were ending for those people with a Trump portrait and the caption: “I am the captain now.”
Noem last month announced a surge of immigration officers in Minnesota, home to a large Somali diaspora community and where a sprawling federal fraud investigation found problems in the state’s childcare industry, which the administration has linked to Somali immigrants.
Jonathan Ross, an immigration enforcement agent, fatally shot US citizen Renee Good in her car last week during the Minneapolis operation sparking large protests locally and nationally. The Trump administration says the agent acted in self-defence but local officials insist the woman posed no danger.
Trump has for months said he wants Somali immigrants to leave, saying Somalis in the US saying they should “go back to where they came from” and “their country is no good for a reason”. Trump also said the US would “go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country”.
Ahead of Tuesday’s announcement, Trump also posted online saying “FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”
TPS for Somalia was first designated in 1991 by Republican President George H W Bush, following the outbreak of civil war in the country, and has been renewed since then by both Democratic and Republican presidents.
The Biden administration had renewed TPS for Somalia for the maximum 18 months allowed under the law, which are set to end in March.
Over the last year, the Trump administration has moved to end TPS for immigrants from other countries previously deemed unsafe, including Venezuela, Haiti, Afghanistan, and Nepal.
Those attempts have been challenged int he courts and in September a federal judge ruled that a move to end TPS for Haitians and Venezuelans was unlawful.
