Defense of protected status for Somali immigrants filed by AG Ellison

(FOX 9) - Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has again filed a defensive lawsuit in the fight to keep Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in place for Somali immigrants.

Somali immigrant Temporary Protected Status

What we know:

According to a press release on Tuesday, Ellison has filed a new amicus brief in African Communities Together v. Mullin, the second filed this year.

The filing supports plaintiffs who want an appeals court to overturn a lower court's refusal to grant emergency relief and block the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from ending TPS for Somali immigrants. Ellison also led the first filing in April 2026.

Dig deeper:

According to the press release, the coalition claims that the U.S. is home to at least 53,000 Somali immigrants, with Minnesota alone being home to at least 37,500 of them.

Together, the coalition argues that ending TPS for Somali nationals would hurt state economies, residents and public health and safety, in the process pushing people into undocumented status that could also create ripple effects across schools and public health systems.

The filed brief argues that former TPS holders who lose legal status could avoid seeking treatment for their U.S. citizen children, which could create serious public health problems.

Ellison and the coalition also say current TPS holders, especially parents of U.S. citizen children, could be forced to choose between returning to Somalia alone and leaving children behind, or staying in the U.S. without authorization and the ability to work legally.

What they're saying:

"The Trump Administration’s insistence on terminating Temporary Protected Status for Somali nationals isn’t only cruel, it’s harmful to communities across Minnesota and in every state where Somalis live, work, grow the economy, pay taxes, and give back," Ellison said in a statement accompanying the announcement. "I led this coalition of attorneys general supporting the plaintiffs who want to block the revocation of TPS for Somalis because we recognize the contributions of our Somali neighbors that strengthen our states and our people and do not want our states to be harmed if the revocation is allowed to stand."

TPS for Somali immigrants

The backstory:

Somalia was first designated for TPS in 1991 by Acting Attorney General William Barr due to "extraordinary and temporary conditions" as civil war has raged in Somalia, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Given the ongoing violence, Somalia’s TPS designation had been continually in place until Trump’s order.

In November 2025, President Trump posted on social media that he would be terminating the Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in Minnesota.

In a June 2026 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, DHS revoked TPS for immigrants from Somalia on Aug. 14, 2026.

The Source: Information provided by a press release from the Office of Keith Ellison, and the amicus brief field in African Communities Together v. Mullin.