Immigration lawyer: President Trump lacks authority to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in Minnesota

Immigration lawyer: President Trump lacks authority to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in MinnesotaImmigration lawyer: President Trump lacks authority to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in Minnesota

Legal questions followed President Donald Trump’s Friday announcement on social media that he would terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalis in Minnesota.

RELATED: President Trump says he will terminate the Temporary Protected Status program for Somalis in Minnesota

Minnesota has the largest Somali population in the country, with the last count from Minnesota Compass showing nearly 80,000 people. It’s estimated that less than one percent have TPS.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS turned to an expert in immigration law on Saturday to better understand why the program exists and whether President Trump has the legal authority to terminate it.

Sari Long is an immigration lawyer from Minnesota and a current partner at Colorado-based Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP.

“Congress, as part of the Immigration Act in 1990, established Temporary Protected Status as a program that is primarily a humanitarian program,” Long said.

“So it exists because the U.S. has interest for when something goes terribly wrong in another country, if there are folks who are living here at the time, or even visiting, to send them back into harm’s way, would not be in the interest of the United States.”

Somalia was among the first countries to receive a TPS designation back in 1991. It was most recently extended through March 2026 amid ongoing civil war and political instability involving terrorist groups.

As Long explained, the Trump administration has the authority to end that designation early, and TPS has been terminated or announced for at least seven countries since January. However, contrary to the president’s social media post, Long said TPS was not terminated “effective immediately” for Somalis in Minnesota or anywhere in the U.S.

That call has to come from United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who has not publicly said whether she will follow through.

“The sole authority and discretion lies with the secretary,” Long said.

Long also said TPS programs have always been terminated nationwide. President Trump specifically pointed to Minnesota, calling the state “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”

Asked if fraud in Minnesota is a viable legal basis for the administration to use to terminate TPS designation, Long said, “In the Secretary’s justification for termination of the status, there could be some elements of why it’s no longer in the U.S. interest to do that. But it couldn’t be the sole basis… There would need to be more. It can’t simply be that there is this ongoing focus on fraud in Minnesota to cancel TPS federally.”

Historically, legal justification for TPS program termination has included a change in a country’s condition, Long said, and she expects legal challenges to follow.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison responded to the president’s announcement with his own social media post, saying he and his office “are monitoring the situation and exploring all of our options.”
The post Immigration lawyer: President Trump lacks authority to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in Minnesota first appeared on KSTP.com 5 Eyewitness News.