Trump ends temporary protected status for 60,000 Somalis, including those in Ohio

The Trump administration announced this week that it will end Temporary Protected Status for Somali nationals living in the United States, saying that unless they can remain lawfully in the United States, they need to return to their home country by March 17, a move that could affect roughly 0.008% of Ohio’s population.

Official social media posts from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the termination of TPS for Somalia and the March 17 deadline for beneficiaries to leave the United States.

I am the captain now. https://t.co/KpvugNXfGF pic.twitter.com/xJHmyecrux

— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) January 13, 2026

“Temporary means temporary,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on X. “Country conditions in Somalia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law’s requirement for Temporary Protected Status. Allowing Somali nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interests. We are putting Americans first.”

Temporary means temporary.

Country conditions in Somalia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law’s requirement for Temporary Protected Status.

Allowing Somali nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interests.

We are…

— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) January 13, 2026

This decision affects hundreds – and potentially thousands – of Somali immigrants all around the United States, including in Columbus, where more than 60,000 Somali immigrants live, making it the second-largest Somali population in the entire country, according to the Ohio State University.

State Rep. Ismail Mohamed, D-Columbus, called the decision “ethnic hatred,” saying Somali families in Ohio are “worried” and “scared” about what the policy change might mean for their futures.

“I’ve had constituents call me this morning when the news came down, worried about how the news would impact them,” she told Spectrum News.

Mohamed said he hopes the situation will be challenged in court.

“We’re certainly relying on good Americans to come out and say this is wrong,” Mohamed said. “Even if there are some things that are problematic, to target a community to that degree is concerning. We’ve seen that movie before, and we know where that’s going to end up.”

Anisa Liban, a community advocate in Ohio, also criticized the recent decision.

“The entire purpose of issuing TPS is to ensure that folks are staying away from harm, and so to end it abruptly with really no valid justification, I think raises very serious concerns about the message this country is sending,” Liban said.

TPS is a humanitarian program created by Congress in 1990 to protect foreign nationals from deportation if their home countries are suffering from armed conflict, environmental disasters, or other extraordinary conditions that make return unsafe.

Somalia has had TPS since 1991, when civil war and instability led thousands of its citizens to seek refuge in the United States.

The designation has been repeatedly extended by successive administrations, most recently by President Joe Biden, who renewed the protections during his term, according to NBC 4 News. Despite the rhetoric from the left, the move may affect only a small part of Ohio’s population, according to one federal lawmaker.

“I just learned about this this morning, and the early research that my staff has done on this is that there are less than 1,000 people, or around 1,000 people of Somali descent, that actually are on temporary protected status,” U.S. Sen. Jon Husted said on Tuesday, per 10TV in Columbus. “So, this is a tiny part of the population that would be affected by it, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be problematic.”