WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is ending temporary protected status for Somali immigrants, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed in a Tuesday post to X.
Somali immigrants in the U.S. with TPS must leave the country by March 17, she said.
The U.S. provides temporary protected status to immigrants from certain countries that are impacted by safety conditions such as natural and man-made disasters.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly denigrated Somali immigrants in recent weeks, having accused them of destroying the country and said that “the Somalians should be out of here.”
The Trump administration has also targeted Somalis in Minnesota in particular after renewed focus on a fraud scandal in which many accused of wrongdoing were citizens of Somali descent.
NBC News reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
Fox News was first to report the development. In a statement to Fox News, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said, “Temporary means temporary.”
“Country conditions in Somalia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law’s requirement for Temporary Protected Status,” she said in the statement to Fox News. “Further, allowing Somali nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interests. We are putting Americans first.”
The U.S. first recognized people from Somalia as being eligible for temporary protected status in 1991.
At a rally in December, Trump referred to Somalia and several other nations as “hellholes” and complained that “we always take people from Somalia, places that are a disaster.”
“Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime,” he said at the time. “The only thing they’re good at is going after ships.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Julia Ainsley contributed.
