Trump administration moves to end deportation protections for Somali migrants

The administration of United States President Donald Trump is moving to end temporary deportation protections and work permits for Somali nationals living in the US, intensifying a crackdown that has increasingly targeted the Somali community.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Tuesday that the Trump administration would terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalis. The programme shields migrants from deportation to countries deemed unsafe and grants temporary authorisation to work in the US.

“Country conditions in Somalia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law’s requirement for Temporary Protected Status,” Noem said in a statement. “Further, allowing Somali nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interests. We are putting Americans first.”

The decision is expected to affect roughly 1,100 people and is likely to face swift legal challenges.

The move comes as the Somali community has emerged as a recurring focus of Trump’s rhetoric and enforcement agenda. The president has previously referred to Somalis as “garbage” and portrayed them as criminals, language that civil rights groups say has helped fuel discrimination and fear.

In recent weeks, the administration has accused Minnesota’s Somali community, the largest in the US, with about 80,000 members, of widespread public benefits fraud. Trump has gone further, threatening to strip citizenship from naturalised Somalis and other immigrants convicted of fraud.

“We’re going to revoke the citizenship of any naturalised immigrant from Somalia or anywhere else who is convicted of defrauding our citizens,” Trump said on Tuesday.

The escalation has already had tangible consequences in Minnesota. The administration has cut off the state’s access to federal childcare assistance and surged immigration enforcement agents into the area, triggering backlash from local and state officials over aggressive raids.

Residents and civil liberties groups have reported heavily armed agents breaking car windows, detaining people in public, using force against protesters and demanding proof of citizenship, actions critics say raise serious constitutional concerns.

Tensions spiked further last week after a federal immigration agent shot and killed Renee Good, a US citizen and mother of three, during heightened enforcement operations in Minneapolis. Good had been acting as a legal monitor of immigration activity at the time of her death, sparking protests and national scrutiny.