President Donald Trump announced Friday that he is immediately ending temporary deportation protections for Somali nationals living in Minnesota, fast-tracking the termination of a program originally created in 1991 under President George H. W. Bush.
“Minnesota, under Governor Waltz, is a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity. I am, as President of the United States, hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota. Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing. Send them back to where they came from. It’s OVER!” Trump wrote in a late-night post on Truth Social.
The announcement follows an investigative report by City Journal, which claimed that Minnesota, home to the country’s largest Somali community, has been rife with criminal activity and fraud under Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, and that significant sums of money have allegedly been funneled to a terrorist organization in Somalia.
According to the report, “Minnesota is drowning in fraud. Billions in taxpayer dollars have been stolen during the administration of Governor Tim Walz alone. Democratic state officials, overseeing one of the most generous welfare regimes in the country, are asleep at the switch. And the media, duty-bound by progressive pieties, refuse to connect the dots.”
Federal counterterrorism sources reportedly confirmed that millions of dollars in stolen funds were sent from Minnesota to Somalia, eventually reaching the terror group Al-Shabaab. One confidential source claimed, “The largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer.”
At the same time, Governor Walz’s administration has come under increased federal scrutiny for its handling of a state housing program that was shut down amid allegations of widespread fraud. Temporary commissioner Shireen Gandhi of the Minnesota Department of Human Services requested federal assistance to terminate the Housing Stabilization Services program, citing “credible allegations of fraud” and “exponential growth in spending.”
The program, funded through Medicaid, was intended to help older adults and people with disabilities secure housing. However, costs reportedly surged from $2.6 million in 2017 to $107 million by 2024, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.
Minnesota has faced several other high-profile fraud cases in recent years, including the Feeding Our Future scandal, abuses in the state’s autism program, Medicaid fraud schemes, and housing assistance corruption. Two weeks ago, a Lakeville man, Khadar Adan, was sentenced to one year of probation for his involvement in the Feeding Our Future fraud investigation. Adan had pleaded guilty to one count of theft of government property, admitting to accepting $1,000 in illicit proceeds and ordered to pay restitution of the same amount.
The Feeding Our Future case, centered on a St. Anthony nonprofit, is the largest pandemic-era fraud prosecution in the U.S. Of the 75 people charged, 50 have pleaded guilty. Prosecutors allege that the defendants falsely claimed to have provided millions of meals to children during the COVID-19 pandemic, while diverting federal funds to buy luxury cars, real estate, and other high-end goods.
For example, Adan and co-defendants claimed to have served 70,000 meals between December 2020 and April 2021 through Lake Street Kitchen, but only a fraction of the meals were reportedly distributed. Co-defendant Liban Yasin Alishire, who also ran Lake Street Kitchen and Community Enhancement Services, received over $1.6 million and pleaded guilty in 2023.
The scandal has also touched political circles. A former campaign associate of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) recently pleaded guilty to participating in the same scam, adding another controversial chapter to the lawmaker’s orbit. Omar responded on X, stating:
“I am a citizen and so are the majority of Somalis in America. Good luck celebrating a policy change that really doesn’t have much impact on the Somalis you love to hate. We are here to stay.”
Trump’s decision to terminate TPS protections for Somali nationals in Minnesota reflects a broader campaign narrative about fraud, immigration, and national security, while Minnesota officials face scrutiny over long-standing questions about oversight, governance, and misuse of state resources.
