Advocacy groups sue Trump administration to maintain temporary visas for Somalis
Advocacy groups on Monday filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's shutdown of the temporary protected status (TPS) programme for Somalis in the US.
Three Somali TPS holders, one Somali TPS applicant, and the groups African Communities Together and Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans said in their complaint that Somalia is "currently facing a humanitarian crisis with roots that stretch back decades".
"In recognition of ongoing armed conflict and other extraordinary conditions threatening the safety of Somali nationals, the United States government designated Somalia for TPS in 1991," they wrote.
"Since 2002, each extension and redesignation has acknowledged Somalia’s ongoing armed conflict, which has led to arbitrary detentions, physical violence, torture, the murder of civilians, and other severe human rights violations."
The legal team on the case comprises Muslim Advocates; the Haitian Bridge Alliance; the Legal Defense Fund; and Communities United for Status and Protection.
The lawyers said in a statement that if [TPS] protections "are unlawfully and imminently stripped away, Somali TPS holders face loss of immigration status and work authorization, deportation proceedings and related immigration confinement, forced family separation, and removal to a country where conditions remain deeply unsafe".
The complaint points to the Trump administration's fast-paced decision to remove Somalis as part of "preordained, pretextual, politically influenced agendas".
Late last year, US President Donald Trump lashed out at Somali immigrants, as well as the only Somali-American member of Congress, Ilhan Omar, for what he says is a takeover of the state of Minnesota.
Its largest city, Minneapolis, has the largest Somali immigrant community in the US, estimated at just over 80,000 people.
"They come from hell, and they complain and do nothing but bitch. We don't want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it," Trump told reporters.
"I don’t want them in our country. I’ll be honest with you, okay? Somebody said, 'Oh, that’s not politically correct.' I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks, and we don’t want them in our country," the president added.
His comments were in response to a question about whether Trump thinks former Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz should resign over a Covid-era payment programme that was, according to the Department of Justice, defrauded by a large number of Somalis.
'Temporary means temporary'
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced in January that TPS for Somali nationals in the US will expire on 17 March, and urged members of the community to "self-deport".
TPS is a short-term legal status typically granted to citizens of countries who cannot return home due to war or major instability.
It often gets extended every few years, given US law - at least on paper - espouses "non-refoulement", meaning people cannot be sent back somewhere they could face imminent death or injury.
That stipulation, however, often faces legal challenges.
Over the past 12 months, the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants has meant the cancellation of TPS for Venezuelans, Syrians, and Afghans, among others.
"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," former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement earlier this year.
"Further, allowing Somali nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interests. We are putting Americans first," she said.
Monday's court filing said there are approximately 1,082 Somalis in the US who are TPS beneficiaries. Another 1,383 Somalis have pending TPS applications.
If Somalis do not wish to become the target of an arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after 17 March, they should use the "Customs and Border Protection Home" mobile app to report their departure from the United States, the agency said, in which case they would be reimbursed for their outbound flight expenses.
DHS previously claimed that hundreds of people have used the app to self-deport, but there are no known instances of anyone receiving the promised funds.
"This is part of a nakedly white supremacist pattern and practice of terminating TPS for Black and brown countries, from Cameroon to Haiti to Yemen, even as this administration signals its openness to immigration from predominantly white and European countries," Omar Farah, the executive director of Muslim Advocates, told reporters in a press briefing on Tuesday.
"This administration has shown no restraint in its willingness to denigrate Somali people, their culture and identity, en masse and with a degree of cruelty that has become a signature of this administration's approach to immigrants of colour. We really can't mince words," he said.
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
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