What proportion of Somali immigrants in the U.S. arrived as refugees versus on TPS between 1990 and 2025?

1. How many Somalis were under TPS by 2025 — small, but figures vary

Government and congressional reporting cited in the coverage places the number of Somali nationals covered by TPS in 2025 at figures ranging from about 705 (USCIS/CRS reporting cited by news outlets) to higher counts reported anecdotally by some media and anonymous sources , producing clear discrepancies in the record that must be reconciled before any precise share can be calculated ^{[1] [4] [5] [6]}.

2. Refugee arrivals and other legal pathways dominate reporting about Somali migration

Multiple local and national reports explicitly state that most Somali immigrants in places like Minnesota and Columbus arrived as refugees or via family and student visas rather than through TPS, and that long-established refugee resettlement beginning in the 1990s produced the core of the Somali diaspora in the U.S.; those accounts underpin qualitative claims that refugee and other lawful admission routes represent the majority of Somali migration since 1990 ^{[2] [3] [7]}.

3. Why a precise “proportion” between refugees and TPS can’t be produced from these sources

Calculating a proportion requires two reliable numbers: the total number of Somali immigrants arriving by all pathways from 1990–2025 and the subset who arrived specifically under TPS. The reporting supplied gives several TPS snapshots (705; 2,471; pending-application counts cited) but does not provide a vetted, single cumulative total of Somali arrivals by pathway for the 1990–2025 period, so a mathematically defensible proportion cannot be derived from the available documents ^{[1] [5] [6]}.

4. Best-read interpretation from the reporting: TPS is a tiny slice of Somali migration

Even allowing for the higher TPS tallies cited by some outlets, coverage repeatedly frames TPS beneficiaries from Somalia as a small fraction of the broader Somali-American population (examples cite Minnesota’s Somali population in the tens of thousands and note that only “a tiny part of the population” would be affected by TPS changes), which supports a robust qualitative conclusion: arrivals on TPS represent only a very small share compared with refugees and other admission categories ^{[5] [2] [3] [4]}.

5. Conflicting counts, political context, and hidden agendas that shape the narrative

Numbers are contested: the administration’s enforcement moves, anonymous sources, advocacy groups and local officials all offer different tallies and frames—the federal government emphasizes enforcement and small numerical impact, advocates emphasize human costs and the refugee legacy; those differences reflect political agendas around immigration policy and enforcement that shape which figures get amplified in national coverage ^{[8] [6] [2] [9]}.

6. What would be needed to answer the question exactly

A precise answer would require authoritative, disaggregated immigration statistics: (a) an official cumulative count of Somali arrivals to the U.S. from 1990–2025 broken down by admission category (refugee admissions, TPS initial arrivals, family reunification, asylum, student/work visas, adjustments to LPR), and (b) reconciled TPS beneficiary counts across years from USCIS/CRS; those data points are not present in the sources supplied here, so reporters must avoid overstating precision ^{[1] [10]}.

Conclusion

Reporting reviewed consistently shows TPS-protected Somalis number in the hundreds (with some media citing higher, disputed figures) while the Somali-American population from long-standing refugee resettlement and family visas numbers in the tens of thousands; therefore, arrivals under TPS between 1990 and 2025 are a very small minority of Somali immigrants overall, but the precise proportion cannot be calculated from the supplied reporting without additional breakdowns from USCIS, refugee resettlement statistics, or Census/ACS tabulations ^{[1] [2] [3] [5]}.