Trump pledge to ‘immediately’ end protections for Minnesota Somalis sparks fear and legal questions
President Donald Trump’s promise ending temporary legal protections The plight of Somalis living in Minnesota is triggering fear in the state’s long-established immigrant community and doubts about whether the White House has the legal authority to enact the directive as announced.
In Real Social to mail Late Friday, Trump said he would “immediately” remove Somali residents in Minnesota from Temporary Protected Status, a legal protection against deportation for immigrants from certain countries.
The announcement drew immediate backlash from some state leaders and immigration experts, who called Trump’s statement a legally dubious effort to sow fear and suspicion in Minnesota. Somali communitythe largest in the country.
“There is no legal mechanism that allows the president to terminate protected status for a particular community or state that he is hostile to,” said Heidi Altman, policy director for the National Immigrant Justice Center.
“Trump is doing what he always does: demagogueling immigrants without justification or evidence and using that demagoguery to dismantle important life-saving protections,” he added.
Protection has been extended for Somalis 27 times since 1991; U.S. officials have determined that it is not safe for people already in the United States to return there.
But the Trump administration may move to remove legal protections for Somalis at the national level. But this move will affect only a small portion of the tens of thousands of Somalis living in Minnesota. A report prepared for Congress in August stated that the number of Somalis covered by TPS was only 705 nationwide.
“I am a citizen and so are the majority of Somalis in America,” Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Somali Democrat, said in a social media post Friday. “Good luck celebrating a policy change that doesn’t have much impact on the Somalis you love to hate.”
Still, advocates warned the move could fuel hatred against the community at a time when Islamophobia is on the rise.
“This is not just a bureaucratic change,” said Jaylani Hussein, president of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “This is a political attack on Somalia and the Muslim community with Islamophobic and hateful rhetoric.”
In his social media post, Trump claimed, without providing any evidence, that Somali gangs were targeting Minnesota residents and called the state a “center of fraudulent money laundering activity.”
Federal prosecutors have filed charges in recent weeks against dozens of people involved in a welfare fraud scheme. Some of the defendants come from Somalia.
Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said Minnesota consistently ranks among the safest states in the country.
“It is not surprising that the president would choose to target an entire society at large,” Walz said Friday. “He’s doing this to change the subject.”
Community advocates for the Somali diaspora in Minnesota helped revitalize downtown corridors He plays a prominent role in Minneapolis and state politics.
“The reality is that the Somali community is beloved and has long been woven into the fabric of many neighborhoods and communities in Minnesota,” Altman said. “Destabilizing families and communities makes us all less safe, not more safe.”
The Trump administration, as part of a broader effort to adopt strict immigration policies. withdrawing various protections This allowed immigrants to stay and work legally in the United States.
This included ending TPS for 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians. protection provided Under President Joe Biden’s administration. The Trump administration has also sought to limit protections previously imposed on immigrants from Cuba and Syria, among other countries.
