Trump Moves To End Somali TPS, Calls Minnesota 'Great State' That Is Now A 'Hub' Of Fraud

MINNESOTA — President Donald Trump said on Truth Social Friday night that he is "terminating, effective immediately," the Temporary Protected Status designation for Somalis living in Minnesota.

In his post, Trump said under Gov. Tim Walz that Minnesota has become "a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity" and said, "Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State."

He also wrote that "billions of dollars are missing" and ended his message with: "Send them back to where they came from."

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minneapolis — a refugee who came to the U.S. as a child from Somalia — pushed back, noting that she is a United States citizen and that most Somalis in America are citizens as well.

"Good luck celebrating a policy change that really doesn’t have much impact on the Somalis you love to hate. We are here to stay," she wrote.

Walz also responded, saying, "It’s not surprising that the President has chosen to broadly target an entire community. This is what he does to change the subject."

Minnesota has the nation’s largest Somali community, many of whom fled the civil war in Somalia and were drawn to the state’s social welfare programs.

But the actual number of people currently covered by TPS is likely small. A congressional report from August estimated that just 705 Somalis nationwide are protected by the program.

According to Minnesota’s 2018 demographic data, Somalia was the second-largest country of origin among foreign-born Minnesotans, with about 33,500 Somali-born residents.

Other major foreign-born groups came from Mexico (about 64,500), India (30,200), Laos including Hmong (24,400), Ethiopia (21,900), Vietnam (18,600), China excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan (18,600), and Thailand including Hmong (18,500).

Looking at ancestry rather than birthplace, the most common ancestries reported were German, Norwegian, Irish, Swedish, English, and Polish. About 58,800 Minnesotans reported Somali ancestry, including both Somali-born residents and U.S.-born Somali Americans.

Temporary Protected Status was created by Congress in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from disasters, conflict, or other dangerous conditions. The designation is granted by the Homeland Security secretary in 18‑month increments.

The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Trump’s move "will tear families apart." Executive Director Jaylani Hussein said the decision is a political attack on the Somali and Muslim community, driven by Islamophobic rhetoric.

Trump has also moved to end TPS protections for other groups, including 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians who were granted protection under President Joe Biden, as well as migrants from Cuba and Syria.

Reporting from the Associated Press was used in this story.