Have Somali-Americans faced increased deportations or ICE raids during the Trump era?
Executive summary
Somali-Americans were explicitly targeted by stepped-up immigration enforcement during the Trump presidency’s second term: the administration ended Temporary Protected Status for Somalis and deployed ICE operations that focused on Somalis with final deportation orders, particularly in Minnesota, sparking fear and legal challenges in the community [1] [2] [3]. Reporting shows an intensification of rhetoric and enforcement concentrated on Somali populations—driven in part by fraud prosecutions and presidential commentary—that produced a surge in raids, raids focused on individuals with removal orders, and broader community alarm [2] [4] [5].
1. Targeted enforcement in Minnesota: operation focused on Somalis with final orders
Immigration enforcement activity in the Twin Cities in late 2025 and early 2026 was not generic: New York Times reporting says the operation that began in early December targeted Somalis who already had final deportation orders, and the wider crackdown on cities since the president’s second term included special focus on Somalis implicated in fraud cases [2]. Local reporting and national outlets corroborate that ICE “strike teams” were sent to Minnesota and that federal agents’ activity was concentrated where large Somali communities live [6] [7].
2. Policy move: ending TPS for Somalis reduced legal protections and raised deportation risk
The administration formally ended Temporary Protected Status for Somalia, a designation that had sheltered a small number of people (about 700 according to the Congressional Research Service) and had been renewed by prior administrations; DHS set a departure deadline for affected recipients, heightening the legal vulnerability of those holders [1] [3] [8]. Multiple outlets note that revoking TPS removed a legal barrier to removal and was presented by DHS leadership as restoring immigration control—“temporary means temporary,” as quoted by the department [3] [8].
3. Rhetoric and motive: fraud prosecutions and presidential attacks framed enforcement
The enforcement surge was accompanied—and in part justified publicly—by presidential and administration rhetoric linking Somali residents to a sprawling fraud scandal in Minnesota; Trump’s repeated denunciations of Somali immigrants and comments about Somali political figures were widely reported and tied to policy moves such as the TPS termination [5] [9] [10]. Critics and Somali community leaders have argued those attacks are nativist and politically motivated, while administration allies frame actions as law‑enforcement responses to alleged fraud [10] [5].
4. Community impact versus scale: fear and the numerical picture
Coverage from The Guardian, local Wisconsin public radio and other outlets documented widespread fear and behavior changes among Somali communities—carrying passports, staying home, and organizing legal responses—yet reporters also emphasized that most Somali Americans in Minnesota are citizens or lawful residents and that the TPS cohort is numerically small (roughly 700 TPS recipients and a much larger diaspora of U.S. citizens and green‑card holders) [4] [7] [1]. That contrast—intense community impact versus a limited TPS population—underscores how targeted enforcement and inflammatory rhetoric can produce outsized social effects [4] [7].
5. Legal and political pushback, and the larger deportation program context
State and local officials sued the administration over the deployment of federal officers, arguing the operations risk sweeping up citizens and undermining public safety; media coverage also placed the Somali measures within a broader expansion of deportation policy under the Trump administration that reviewers and outlets have described as an unprecedented crackdown in scope and rhetoric [8] [11]. At the same time, reporting notes that many of the enforcement actions focused on people with existing final orders—a narrower legal cohort—while policy actors publicly linked the moves to broader anti‑fraud and immigration priorities [2] [8].