Minnesota Democrats thought they could hide behind "temporary" protections forever.
The Trump administration just called their bluff.
And Trump just ended "temporary" status that Somalia had for 34 years and Minnesota Democrats are in full panic mode.
Kristi Noem Ends Somalia TPS After 34 Years With March 17 Deadline
Secretary Kristi Noem terminated Temporary Protected Status for Somalia on Monday, affecting 2,471 Somali nationals currently living in the United States under the designation.
All of them must leave by March 17.
"Temporary means temporary," Noem said.
Somalia received TPS in 1991 after civil war broke out following the collapse of the Siad Barre regime.
Both Republican and Democrat administrations extended the designation 27 times since then.
Joe Biden extended it as recently as September 2024, just months before leaving office.
Here's the pattern Democrats hoped nobody would notice.
Honduras and Nicaragua have had "temporary" status since 1999 – that's 26 years.
Haiti still has TPS from a 2010 earthquake that happened 15 years ago.
El Salvador received TPS in 2001, making it 24 years of "temporary" protection.
Border security experts have been calling out this scam for years.
"I think one of the biggest issues with TPS is that it is in effect a lie," Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, told the Washington Examiner.
"Take El Salvadorians who were first granted it in March 2001. That means they have had it for 24 years. This completely contradicts the 'temporary' intent of this program."
The Federation for American Immigration Reform agreed.
"By no stretch of the imagination is 26 years temporary," media director Ira Mehlman stated.
Minnesota's $9 Billion Fraud Scheme Links To Al-Shabaab Terrorists
An estimated 600 of those Somali nationals with TPS live in Minnesota.
The same Minnesota where federal investigators just exposed a roughly $9 billion welfare fraud scheme.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer revealed last week that the Justice Department has charged 98 defendants in Minnesota fraud cases.
Eighty-five of them are of Somali descent.
Sixty-four have already been convicted.
The fraudsters stole from child nutrition programs, autism therapy services, housing assistance, and Medicaid healthcare.
But it gets worse.
Federal counterterrorism sources confirmed to City Journal that millions of dollars in stolen funds were sent back to Somalia.
The money ended up in the hands of Al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group.
"The largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer," one confidential federal source stated.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is now investigating whether Minnesota fraud money reached Al-Shabaab.
The terrorist group taxes businesses in areas of Somalia it controls, meaning even legitimate money transfers help fund terrorism.
Minnesota's Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program started with a $2.6 million budget.
Actual first-year costs hit $21 million.
Six months into 2025, payouts reached $61 million.
Minnesota terminated the program in August 2025 after finding payment to 77 housing providers involved "credible allegations of fraud."
Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said the "vast majority" of the program was fraudulent.
Autism therapy providers in Minnesota jumped from 41 to 328 – more than an eightfold increase.
Most of the new providers came from the Somali community, according to federal investigators.
Tim Walz, Minnesota Democrats Cry Racism While Protecting Welfare Fraud
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Sunday, one day before the TPS announcement.
"We allege that the obvious targeting of Minnesota for our diversity, for our democracy and our differences of opinion with the federal government is a violation of the Constitution and of federal law," Ellison claimed.
Translation: "Please stop investigating the fraud we enabled for years."
"DHS agents have sown chaos and terror across the metropolitan area," Ellison added.
The only chaos came from rioters who attacked ICE agents trying to enforce the law.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told ICE to "get the f— out of Minneapolis" last week.
Governor Tim Walz called Secretary Noem's statements about the Renee Good shooting "propaganda" and sided with the rioters.
These are the officials who presided over a $9 billion fraud scheme.
Kayesh Magan, a former fraud investigator at the Minnesota Attorney General's Office who is himself Somali-American, wrote last year that it's "uncomfortable and true" that nearly all defendants in major fraud cases are Somali.
Walz defended his administration by claiming "we've spent years cracking down on fraudsters."
That's why fraud jumped from $2.6 million to over $120 million annually under his watch.
Trump Immigration Crackdown Exposes Decades Of TPS Abuse
Democrats turned TPS into a backdoor amnesty program that shields immigrants from deportation for decades.
Once a country receives the designation, special interest groups ensure it never ends.
The foreign nationals themselves push for extensions because many entered illegally and never intended to return.
Mass immigration advocacy groups demand permanent extensions.
The governments of designated countries prefer their citizens stay in America sending remittances home.
Immigration attorney Ira Mehlman explained the real standard to the Washington Examiner.
Terminating TPS shouldn't require perfect conditions in the home country.
It requires that the immediate crisis triggering the designation no longer exists.
"Haiti was dysfunctional and corrupt before the earthquake," Mehlman noted, "and not surprisingly, it remains so all these years later."
That doesn't mean the earthquake still justifies TPS 15 years later.
Somalia hasn't had a functional central government since 1991.
Al-Shabaab still controls large portions of the country.
Violence and poverty remain severe problems.
But those were the baseline conditions in 1991 when TPS was granted.
Noem concluded the civil war emergency no longer meets the legal standard.
"Country conditions in Somalia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law's requirement for Temporary Protected Status," Noem stated.
More importantly, she added the national security component Democrats ignore.
"Further, allowing Somali nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interests. We are putting Americans first."
That's the part that has Minnesota Democrats fuming.
For decades they've exploited TPS as a permanent immigration workaround.
The Minnesota fraud investigation exposed what happens when that system goes unchecked.
Federal agents are now going door-to-door in Minnesota conducting criminal and homeland security investigations.
DHS has arrested 1,000 illegal aliens in recent weeks.
Department of Health and Human Services froze $185 million in funding to Minnesota.
HHS now requires justification, receipts, or photo evidence for all childcare-related payments nationwide because Minnesota's fraud was so widespread.
The Trump administration connected the dots Democrats hoped would stay hidden.
Ending Somalia's TPS after 34 years sends an unmistakable message.
Democrats can't hide behind racism accusations when their own Somali-American fraud investigators confirm the schemes.
The March 17 deadline stands.
Sources:
- Preston Mizell, "Trump administration ends temporary protected status for thousands of Somalis in US," Fox News, January 13, 2026.
- Chris Rufo and Ryan Thorpe, "Minnesota Welfare Fraud: Some Funds Went to Al-Shabaab," City Journal, November 21, 2025.
- House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, "Hearing Wrap Up: Minnesota Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison Ignored Rampant Taxpayer Fraud," January 7, 2026.
- Steven Camarota and Ira Mehlman quoted in Washington Examiner, "'Temporary' in name only: How TPS allows foreigners to stay in the US for years," July 23, 2025.
- Michelle Griffith, "U.S. Attorney: Fraud likely exceeds $9 billion in Minnesota-run Medicaid services," Minnesota Reformer, December 18, 2025.
- Library of Congress Congressional Research Service, "Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforced Departure," 2025.