Minneapolis (Somalia Today) — Somali families across Minnesota spent Sunday seeking answers and legal advice after President Donald Trump vowed to end deportation protections for Somali immigrants in the state.
The announcement raised fresh concern that some long-settled residents could one day be forced back to a country still struggling with conflict. Trump made the pledge in a social media post on Friday, promising to end Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in Minnesota.
The threat to withdraw TPS for Somalis did not change the law immediately. However, it unsettled a community that has spent decades putting down roots in the state.
Community concerns grow
“People are in a panic,” said immigration attorney Abdiqani Jabane, who spent much of Sunday answering calls from clients. “Some are asking if they should leave Minnesota for another state. Others want to know if they should stop going to work.”
Many of the people who called his office arrived in the United States more than twenty years ago. They have jobs, mortgages, and children who know only Minnesota as home. Now they worry that a policy change could strip away the protection that has allowed them to build those lives.
Jabane, in an interview with The Star Tribune, said sending people back to Somalia now would be dangerous.
He pointed to al-Shabab, which continues to carry out bombings and assassinations, and to a government that still struggles to protect civilians. U.S. officials classify al-Shabab as a terrorist organization and say the group controls parts of the country.
Minnesota hosts the largest Somali community in the United States. Since 1993, more than 26,000 Somali refugees have settled in the state, and the community has grown as new generations are born there.
Most Somalis in Minnesota are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, so they do not rely on TPS. Even so, Friday’s announcement has stirred broader anxiety about their place in America.
According to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, about 430 Somalis in the state currently have TPS. A Congressional Research Service report counted 705 Somali TPS holders nationwide as of March 31. Many have lived and worked in the country for decades.
Rights group condemns move
The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) urged Trump to reverse his decision. It warned that ending deportation protections would split families.
“This decision, fueled by harmful misinformation campaigns that we believe have external political motives, will tear families apart and send individuals to a country they have not known for over 20 years,” CAIR-MN executive director Jaylani Hussein said in a statement.
“This is not just a bureaucratic change; it is a political attack on the Somali and Muslim community driven by Islamophobic and hateful rhetoric.”
Trump’s post followed a report by a conservative group that alleged money from Minnesota flows to al-Shabab. Jabane believes the president seized on that claim and on recent fraud cases to single out Somalis.
In recent years, federal prosecutors have charged dozens of people in Minnesota with defrauding programs intended to provide emergency housing, food support, and autism services.
The most significant case, the $250 million “Feeding Our Future” scandal, led to charges against more than 70 defendants, many with ties to Somali-led community organizations.
“He’s targeting Somalis because it’s guilt by association,” Jabane said. “He’s heard some Somalis have committed fraud, and he’s attacking. We expect that this arbitrary decision will face legal challenges.”
Legal hurdles ahead
Trump told supporters that he would end protections “immediately,” but immigration lawyers say federal law sets clear steps and timelines.
The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security must first publish a notice in the Federal Register to end a country’s TPS designation.
That notice must give at least sixty days’ warning. The termination date also cannot fall before the current extension expires. Somalia’s TPS designation already has an expiration date in March, and lawyers say March 17 is likely the earliest realistic day the status could end.
“There is literally no legal means by which he can do this,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, wrote on X. “DHS may make an attempt to do this, but it would be immediately struck down.”
Jabane expects Homeland Security officials to still try to carry out Trump’s demand. He noted that none of the fraud allegations involve people identified as TPS holders, yet the threat still hangs over them. That gap, he said, adds to the sense of unfairness and uncertainty.
Temporary Protected Status allows people to remain in the United States when war, natural disaster, or other extraordinary events make a safe return impossible.
Somalia first received this status in 1991, at the height of civil war and state collapse. Successive U.S. administrations have extended it on numerous occasions.
Somalia has seen some political progress, but violence and instability persist. Al-Shabab continues to stage attacks, and repeated droughts and floods drive humanitarian crises. U.S. officials have long argued that these conditions make forced returns unsafe for many Somali nationals.
Families brace for uncertainty
On Sunday, Somali community centers in Minneapolis and nearby suburbs began planning “know your rights” sessions and legal clinics.
Organizers say they want to explain who has TPS, what might happen if the designation ends, and how families should respond if immigration agents come to a home or workplace.
Somalis with TPS now worry that they could face detention or deportation if the protection lapses. “People are afraid that ICE agents may start rounding up Somalis,” Jabane said. “These are people who have lived and worked in the community for more than 20 years.”
Lawyers stress that, for now, nothing in the law has changed. TPS remains in place, work permits stay valid, and no government notice has appeared. Still, Trump’s threat has reopened old fears for a community that has already endured war, displacement, and years of political debate over its presence in the United States.
“People came here to build a safer life,” Jabane said. “Now they are asking whether a single post can put all of that at risk.”
