US President Donald Trump, who has called Minnesota a “fraudulent money laundering hub” under Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, said Friday that he is immediately ending Temporary Deportation Protection (TDP) for Somalis living in Minnesota.
“Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of this great nation and BILLIONS of dollars are missing,” Trump said in an overnight post on Truth Social without providing any evidence.
“As President of the United States, I am hereby terminating the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota, effective immediately,” he said.
Tim Walz responded to X: “It’s no surprise that the president chose to broadly target an entire community. He’s doing it to change the subject.”
According to the AP agency, the number of migrants affected by the announcement could be very small. A report to Congress in August put the number of Somalis enrolled in the program at just 705 nationwide.
According to KSTP.com, Julia Decker, spokeswoman for the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, said that typically TPS termination must be published in the Federal Register before the date the country designation is set to expire.
Stating that it’s not being done state by state, she added, “so the federal government would have to end TPS for all Somali immigrants, not just those in Minnesota.”
Trump’s decision will “tear families apart,” the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said.
Executive Director Jaylani Hussein said in a statement: “This decision, fueled by malicious disinformation campaigns that we believe to be externally politically motivated, will tear families apart and send individuals to a country they have not known for over 20 years.
He added: “This is not just a bureaucratic change; it is a political attack on the Somali and Muslim community led by Islamophobic and hateful rhetoric. We strongly urge President Trump to reverse this misguided decision.”
Then-President George HW Bush started the TPS program for Somalis.
Provides government protection to eligible foreign-born individuals who cannot safely return home due to civil war or natural disasters.
