Department of Homeland Security fails to reinstate protected status for Somali refugees

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Last month, the Department of Homeland Security announced the extension of Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for refugees from Somalia for the next 18 months. TPS is a temporary legal protection allowed to nationals of designated countries that allows them to live and work in the United States. Countries are designated based on whether they have been affected by armed conflict or natural disaster.

The DHS first approved TPS for Somali nationals in 1991, in response to the country’s ongoing civil war. Approximately 500 Somalis currently living in the U.S. have TPS.

Somalis with TPS are now eligible to re-register to extend their protected status through March 17, 2020. At some point before the end of this extension, the DHS will review once more the conditions in Somalia and determine whether to extend or terminate the country’s TPS designation.

A statement released by the DHS said, “After carefully reviewing conditions in Somalia with interagency partners, Secretary Nielsen determined the ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions that support Somalia’s current designation for TPS continue to exist. Therefore, pursuant to the statute, she has extended Somalia’s TPS designation for 18 months.”

Although the DHS extended Somalia’s TPS designation, it did not re-designate Somalia for TPS. Cities for Action, an organization describing itself as “a coalition of over 175 mayors and municipal leaders fighting for federal immigration reform,” released a statement regarding the decision Tuesday. They wrote, “While current Somali TPS recipients can continue receiving humanitarian protections under TPS, the failure to re-designate Somalia for TPS prevents other Somali nationals in the United States for applying for these protections. This decision follows recent decisions that extended but did not re-designate TPS for Syria and Yemen, two other countries experiencing war and massive displacement.”

This decision comes in the midst of President Donald Trump’s administration’s tightening immigration restrictions. The administration has already removed TPS protections for several countries, including those for Salvadorans and Haitians, the first and second most protected groups under TPS. At the moment, 263,280 Salvadorans are expected by the government to either leave the U.S. or find another legal status by September 2019.