Boston, USA -- Somali immigrants and advocacy groups sued the Trump administration on Monday in a bid to block the looming end of deportation protections for Somalis in the United States.
The lawsuit opens a fresh legal battle over a humanitarian programme long used to protect people from countries ravaged by war and disaster.
The case, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, seeks to stop the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalis on March 17.
The plaintiffs, including four Somalis, African Communities Together, and the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans, argue that the administration's move was procedurally flawed.
They say the decision was driven by a discriminatory agenda rather than an objective assessment of conditions on the ground in Somalia.
TPS is a humanitarian designation under US law that shields eligible foreign nationals from deportation and allows them to work when armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary circumstances make return unsafe.
Somalia was first designated for TPS in 1991 after the collapse of its central government and the outbreak of civil war. The protection has been repeatedly extended as the country has continued to grapple with chronic instability, militant violence, and drought.
According to US government figures cited in the case, around 1,082 Somalis currently hold TPS, while another 1,383 have pending applications.
The plaintiffs say ending the programme would leave Somali families facing the immediate loss of legal status and work permits, as well as detention and deportation to a country still gripped by humanitarian distress.
"The termination of TPS for Somalia is racism masking as immigration policy," Muslim Advocates executive director Omar Farah said in a statement after the filing.
The DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The department has, however, previously defended its broader rollback of TPS protections, arguing the programme was "never intended to be a de facto amnesty program".
The legal challenge comes just over two months after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that Somalia's TPS designation would end on March 17, saying conditions in the country had improved enough that it no longer met the legal threshold for protection.
The decision marked a sharp reversal from the government's own position last year.
In July 2024, the DHS extended and redesignated Somalia for TPS through March 17, 2026, explicitly stating that "ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions" continued to justify the programme.
At the time, the department warned that forcing Somali nationals to return would pose a serious threat to their personal safety.
The plaintiffs say the administration has not explained how conditions could have improved so dramatically in such a short period.
Their complaint argues that the review process was tainted by procedural deficiencies and shaped by a preordained effort to end TPS for communities of colour.
The suit points to a series of public remarks in which Trump allegedly described Somalis as "garbage" and "low IQ people" who "contribute nothing", arguing that the administration's actions reflect unconstitutional bias against Black and non-European immigrants.
The Somali case also lands against a politically charged backdrop in Minnesota, home to one of the largest Somali communities in the United States.
In recent months, Somalis in the state have come under renewed scrutiny.
Trump officials cited a fraud scandal involving several defendants from the community to justify an immigration enforcement surge that drew protests and deepened fears among immigrant families.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly singled out Somalis in public remarks, pledging to end their TPS protections in Minnesota and later declaring that he wanted them sent "back to where they came from".
The plaintiffs say those political attacks bear little resemblance to realities on the ground in Somalia, where security and humanitarian conditions remain dire.
Al-Shabaab, the Al-Qaeda-linked militant group that has waged an insurgency since 2007, remains active across large parts of the country.
The militants continue to stage bombings, assassinations, and raids, underlining the fragility of the gains claimed by the government and its international partners.
Alongside the conflict, the Somali government and the United Nations warned last month that about 6.5 million people in the country face acute hunger because of drought.
Years of failed rains, floods, and displacement have repeatedly pushed communities across the Horn of Africa to the brink of famine.
Washington's own travel advice reflects those dangers. The US State Department continues to rank Somalia at Level 4, its highest advisory, warning Americans not to travel there because of crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping, and piracy.
Advocates argue that stripping TPS from Somali nationals would force them into removal proceedings for a country that the US government itself explicitly warns is too dangerous for Americans to visit.
The Somali lawsuit forms part of a much broader legal and political fight over Trump's immigration agenda.
Since returning to office, the administration has moved to end protections for around a dozen countries, prompting a wave of lawsuits from civil rights organisations.
Over the weekend, the administration announced that it would ask the US Supreme Court to let it strip TPS from more than 350,000 Haitians, and it has also asked the high court to allow the end of protections for about 6,000 Syrians.
Those cases have become a major test of how far the administration can go in narrowing humanitarian protections created by Congress.
For the Somali plaintiffs, the stakes are immediate. The Massachusetts lawsuit asks the court to postpone the effective date of the termination while the case moves forward.
Unless a judge intervenes before March 17, thousands of Somalis will begin losing the legal status that has allowed them to build lives in the United States.