The United States has increased the deportation of Somalis with 500 people in Minnesota...

Minneapolis (Caasimada Online) — The number of Somalis living in the state of Minnesota who have been ordered to be deported from the United States has significantly increased this year, with more than 500 individuals receiving deportation orders, which is nearly ten times the number from the year 2025.

According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, which analyzed federal government data, more than 1,000 Somali asylum seekers have been ordered to leave the United States since February, with more than half of them residing in Minnesota.

Some of those individuals have already been deported from the United States, while others have been transferred to detention centers, including the U.S. military facility at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, the newspaper reported.

The increase comes at a time when the administration of President Donald Trump has expedited asylum seeker cases and reduced some of the legal pathways that allowed Somalis to remain in the United States.

Most Somalis in Minnesota are American citizens, hold legal status to remain in the country, or are in the asylum application process, according to the Star Tribune. Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the United States.

In February, the Trump administration initiated a fast-track system for cases referred to as “rocket docket,” which allows immigration judges to handle cases related to Somali citizens online.

The Star Tribune reported that this move has forced immigration attorneys to prepare cases in a short time frame that were originally planned for a year or more later.

Almost all the decisions regarding the deportation of Somalis in the first eight months of this year have come from that emergency system, the newspaper reported.

Immigration attorneys told Star Tribune that it is unprecedented for immigration courts to have a docket schedule specifically targeting individuals from one country.

They also expressed concern that asylum seekers do not have enough time to prepare their cases.

A spokesperson for the immigration courts, on the other hand, stated that the system prioritizes "completing cases in a timely manner," noting that federal law requires asylum applications to be decided within 180 days.

“Unnecessary delays harm those with valid cases and the American public who want to remove individuals without valid cases from the country as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson told Star Tribune.

The newspaper reported that approximately 2.3 million asylum applications are still pending in U.S. immigration courts.

End of TPS

The Trump administration also ended the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program for Somalia on March 17, which had provided some Somalis with temporary protection against deportation.

The Department of Homeland Security stated that it concluded after an assessment that Somalia no longer meets the legal requirements for the TPS program.

The termination of TPS does not automatically mean that everyone previously under the program will be deported. Individuals with other legal statuses in the U.S. can remain, while asylum applications and other forms of legal protection are determined through a separate process.

DHS reported that 1,082 individuals held TPS for Somalia as of December 2025, while 1,383 other applications were still awaiting a decision.

On the other hand, some Somalis being deported from the U.S. have been sent to other countries.

Caasimada Online previously reported that a Somali was held at Guantánamo Bay, while Star Tribune stated that at least two individuals from Minnesota were among the Somalis transferred there.

Attorney Marc Prokosch, representing four men held at Guantánamo, described the move as a “political intimidation tactic.”

The four men spent nearly a month at Guantánamo before being taken to Kenya. Prokosch stated that at least one of those men later reached Mogadishu.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) defended the deportation of some individuals to a third country, stating that such agreements help facilitate the enforcement of deportation orders.

The controversy surrounding the deportation of Somalis also comes as U.S. government agencies have provided varying assessments of the security situation in Somalia.

Star Tribune reported that officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice have submitted documents to immigration courts arguing that the situation in Somalia allows for some Somalis to be returned to the country.

However, the U.S. Department of State still maintains the highest travel warning level for Somalia, Level 4: Do Not Travel, citing terrorism, kidnapping, crime, and security conditions.

The discrepancy in that assessment has now become part of the legal debates regarding whether Somalis facing deportation can be safely returned to Somalia.