President Donald Trump speaks after meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, in Washington.
Evan Vucci/AP
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Evan Vucci/AP
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday night that he is “immediately” ending temporary legal protections for Somali migrants living in Minnesota, further targeting a program aimed at limiting deportations that his administration has repeatedly tried to weaken.
Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the country. Many fled their East African country's long civil war and were drawn to the state's welcoming social programs.
But how many migrants will be affected by Trump's announcement that he wants to end Temporary Protected Status may be very small. A report submitted to Congress in August put the number of Somalis covered by the program at just 705 nationwide.
Congress created the Temporary Protected Status program in 1990. It was intended to prevent the deportation of people to countries affected by natural disasters, civil unrest or other dangerous conditions.
This designation may be granted by the Secretary of Homeland Security at intervals of 18 months.
The president announced his decision on his social media site, suggesting that Minnesota was a “hub for fraudulent money laundering activity.”
“Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of this great nation and BILLIONS OF DOLLARS have gone missing. Send them back to where they came from,” Trump wrote. “It's over!”
The head of the Minnesota Council on American-Islamic Relations said Trump's decision would “tear families apart.” Chief Executive Jailani Hussain said in a statement late Friday: “These are not just bureaucratic changes; “This is a political attack on the Somali and Muslim community, driven by Islamophobic and hateful rhetoric.”
While campaigning to retake the White House last year, Trump promised his administration would deport millions of people. As part of a broader push to enact tough immigration policies, the Trump administration has taken steps to roll back various protections that allowed immigrants to remain in the United States and work legally.
This included ending TPS for 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians who were granted protection under President Joe Biden. The Trump administration has also sought to limit protections previously extended to migrants from Cuba and Syria, among other countries.
