Prosecute fraud; not entire communities of immigrants

By Patricia Lopez / Bloomberg Opinion

Minnesota’s Somali community is the latest immigrant group targeted by President Donald Trump. Trump announced Friday that deportation protections granted under the Temporary Protected Status program would be terminated “effective immediately” for Somalis in Minnesota.

“Somali gangs are terrorizing people of that great State,” he claimed without evidence in a Truth Social post. “BILLIONS of dollars are missing. Send them back to where they came from. It’s OVER.” Trump, who disdains Gov. Tim Walz, also alleged the state had become “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity” under Democratic leadership.

Trump has criticized TPS since his first term. He has never considered it a legitimate path for entry and believes it has been abused, particularly under President Joe Biden. Biden expanded the program and used it to bring in substantial numbers of Haitians, resulting in Trump’s memorable false claim that “they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats” from the 2024 campaign.

On Monday, the administration said it also would not renew TPS for Myanmar, which remains locked in civil war, and is also moving forward with a plan to terminate TPS for Venezuela, where millions have fled the regime of socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro. The Myanmar expiration also affects Minnesota, which has about 20,000 refugees from that country.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-prosecute-fraud-not-entire-communities-of-immigrants/