The Trump administration announced Tuesday it will end Temporary Protected Status for Somali immigrants, directing approximately 705 affected individuals to leave the United States by March 17, when existing protections expire. The Department of Homeland Security said the move follows its determination that conditions in Somalia have sufficiently improved to no longer meet the legal threshold for the designation. The announcement adds to a pattern of TPS terminations the administration has pursued across multiple nationalities since President Donald Trump took office.
The rollback affects a small but vulnerable subset of the roughly 1.3 million immigrants in the United States holding Temporary Protected Status. Advocacy groups contend conditions in Somalia — where an al-Qaida affiliate controls parts of the country and instability has persisted for decades — have not improved enough to safely receive returnees, and characterized the action as discriminatory toward a Black and Muslim community.
DHS cites changed conditions
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said circumstances in Somalia “have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law’s requirement for Temporary Protected Status.” Noem added that the decision puts “Americans first,” saying: “Temporary means temporary.”
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that protections for Somalis, last extended by then-President Joe Biden in July 2024, will expire March 17 and that affected individuals must leave the country by that date.
Advocates say Somalia remains dangerous
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which advocates for the treatment of Muslims in the United States, called the termination a “bigoted attack” that would send Somalis back to a nation where violence and instability persist. CAIR said in a joint statement with its Minnesota chapter that “this decision does not reflect changed conditions in Somalia,” and that dismantling protections for the community exposes “an agenda rooted in exclusion, not public safety.”
Located in the Horn of Africa, Somalia is among the world’s poorest nations and has experienced chronic armed conflict for decades, compounded by severe droughts. Al-Shabab, an al-Qaida affiliate, reportedly controls parts of the country and has carried out bombings in the capital, Mogadishu, killing dozens of people in recent years.
A 2025 congressional report from the Congressional Research Service stated that Somalis had received more than two dozen TPS extensions because of perpetual “insecurity and ongoing armed conflict that present serious threats to the safety of returnees.”
Program history and current scope
Congress established the Temporary Protected Status program in 1990 to allow the executive branch to grant deportation protection and work authorization to nationals of designated countries already in the United States who face unsafe conditions at home. The designation applies in roughly 18-month increments and provides no pathway to a green card or U.S. citizenship.
Somalia first received the designation under President George H.W. Bush amid a civil war in 1991. The Congressional Research Service reported last spring that Somalis with TPS numbered 705 — a small fraction of the nearly 1.3 million people across all nationalities holding the protected status.
Pattern of TPS terminations
The Trump administration has also ended TPS for approximately 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians. Those actions drew multiple court challenges; the U.S. Supreme Court issued emergency rulings last May and again in October allowing the Venezuelan revocations to continue while litigation proceeds.
It is not immediately clear how quickly Somalis whose TPS expires March 17 could be removed from the country. Most prior TPS termination attempts have ended in litigation. Individuals covered by TPS can also apply for asylum or other immigration relief, though the Trump administration has made those avenues more restrictive for Somalis and other nationalities.
Minneapolis context
The announcement comes as protests in Minneapolis have intensified following an incident in which a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent killed a U.S. citizen who was demonstrating against federal immigration enforcement in the city. Minneapolis has a substantial Somali-American population.
Speaking in Michigan on Tuesday, Trump renewed accusations that Somalis in Minneapolis have massively defrauded federal programs and said, without providing a clear legal basis, that he would “revoke the citizenship of any naturalized immigrant from Somalia, or anywhere else who was convicted of defrauding our citizens.” In December, Trump had said he did not want Somalis in the United States at all, stating they “come from hell” and “contribute nothing,” making no distinction between citizens and non-citizens.