We Can Stop Fraud in Minnesota Without Attacking Somalis

Minnesota’s Somali community is the latest immigrant group targeted by President Donald Trump. Trump announced Friday that deportation protections granted under the Temporary Protected Status program would be terminated “effective immediately” for Somalis in Minnesota. “Somali gangs are terrorizing people of that great State,” he claimed without evidence in a Truth Social post. “BILLIONS of dollars are missing. Send them back to where they came from. It’s OVER.” Trump, who disdains Governor Tim Walz, also alleged the state had become “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity” under Democratic leadership.

Trump has criticized TPS since his first term. He has never considered it a legitimate path for entry and believes it has been abused, particularly under President Joe Biden. Biden expanded the program and used it to bring in substantial numbers of Haitians, resulting in the memorable false claim that “they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats” from the 2024 campaign.