‘Temporary means temporary’: 1,000+ Somalis face deportation after DHS nixes TPS amid massive fraud scandal

The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday terminated Temporary Protected Status for Somalis amid ongoing investigations into pervasive welfare fraud within their community in Minnesota.

Somalis currently in the country on TPS and without other legal status could be subject to deportation efforts after March 17. The DHS encouraged those individuals to use Customs and Border Protection’s CBP Home mobile app to report their departure from the U.S., adding that it includes a free plane ticket and a $1,000 exit bonus.

‘We are putting Americans first.’

Somalia was initially designated for TPS in 1991, and the status was later extended and redesignated numerous times over the decades, for reasons of “extraordinary and temporary conditions,” such as ongoing armed conflict.

An unpublished notice in the Federal Register explained that TPS was initially provided to Somali nationals after an authoritarian regime that controlled the country from the 1960s through the early 1990s collapsed. Years passed without a new central government emerging to take its place.

However, in 2013, the U.S. began formally recognizing Somalia’s new government, and in 2016, the U.S. sent an ambassador to Somalia to re-establish a diplomatic presence.

The DHS stated that Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the president of Somalia, told the United Nations General Assembly in September that the country had made significant progress, noting that it was confronting “the last remaining pockets of international terrorism while building a strong and sustainable national security architecture.”

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Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/Washington Post/Getty Images

The department argued that Mohamud’s characterization underscored “that the country is no longer experiencing an ongoing armed conflict.”

“Thus, while conditions at the time of previous designations reflected an ongoing armed conflict, Somalia today shows improved national governance and security structures and now experiences localized pockets of violence rather than nationwide, generalized conflict,” the notice read.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem concluded that the country’s current conditions do not prevent Somalian nationals from safely returning home. She also argued that allowing Somalis on TPS to remain in the U.S. would be contrary to America’s national interests and present significant security risks.

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Kristi Noem.Photo by Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images

“Due to this lengthy gap in U.S. diplomatic engagement, the United States cannot adequately vet Somali nationals, particularly aliens who were approved for TPS during this period of 1991-2013, for identity, criminal history, or potential terrorist affiliations, posing an ongoing threat to public safety and national security of the United States,” the federal register notice read.

There are roughly 1,082 approved Somalian TPS beneficiaries, the DHS reported. The department estimated that, as of early December, there were another 1,383 pending applications.

“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,” Noem said. “Further, allowing Somali nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interests. We are putting Americans first.”

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