US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Sunday (November 23) that Washington will review Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations to ensure they are applied strictly as intended. “TPS is a program that was always meant to be temporary,” Noem told reporters, adding, “It was never meant to be an asylum program.”
She said the administration “plans to follow the process that’s in law to evaluate TPS and how it applies to different countries and individuals.”
US President Donald Trump on Friday said he was immediately terminating temporary deportation protections for Somalis living in Minnesota, accelerating the end of a program that began in 1991 under another Republican president.
“Somali gangs are terrorising the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing,” Trump said in a late-night post on Truth Social, without providing any further explanation or evidence.
“I am, as President of the United States, hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota,” he said.
The TPS program for Somalis was launched by then-President George H.W. Bush in September 1991. It grants government protection to eligible foreign-born individuals who cannot return home safely due to civil war or natural disasters.
Seventeen countries are eligible, but the Trump administration has announced it is terminating TPS designations for several, including Venezuela and Nicaragua.
The administration of Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, extended the eligibility for Somalis through March 17, 2026. Most of the Somalis in Minnesota are U.S. citizens, and there are only 705 Somali-born individuals nationwide who have TPS status, according to a report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service.
By comparison, over 330,000 Haitians have TPS status, along with over 170,000 people from El Salvador.
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