WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday night that he's "immediately" terminating temporary legal protections for Somali migrants living in Minnesota, further targeting a program seeking to limit deportations that his administration has already repeatedly sought to weaken.
Minnesota has the nation's largest Somali community. Many fled the long civil war in their east African country and were drawn to the state's welcoming social programs.
But how many migrants would be affected by Trump's announcement that he wants to end temporary protective status could be very small. A report produced for Congress in August put the number of Somalis covered by the program at just 705 nationwide.
Congress created the program granting Temporary Protective Status in 1990. It was meant to prevent deportations of people to countries suffering from natural disasters, civil strife or other dangerous conditions.
The designation can be granted by the Homeland Security secretary and is granted in 18-month increments.
The president announced his decision on his social media site, suggesting that Minnesota was "a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity."
"Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing. Send them back to where they came from," Trump wrote. "It's OVER!"
The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Trump's decision "will tear families apart." Executive Director Jaylani Hussein said in a statement late Friday, "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 promised while campaigning to win back the White House last year that his administration would deport millions of people. As part of a broader push to adopt hardline immigration policies, the Trump administration has moved to withdraw various protections that had allowed immigrants to remain in the United States and work legally.
That included ending TPS for 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians who were granted protection under President Joe Biden. The Trump administration has also sought to limit protections previously extended to migrants from Cuba and Syria, among other countries.
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