President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown is gathering force in Minnesota, where deportation orders issued to Somali nationals have climbed nearly tenfold over the past year. Federal immigration court figures show the enforcement push is rapidly changing the pace of cases that once could remain unresolved for years.

More than 500 Somalis living in Minnesota have been ordered deported in 2026, according to federal immigration court data analyzed by the Minnesota Star Tribune. The figures reflect a sharp shift as the administration moves to accelerate immigration proceedings.

A further thousand Somali asylum seekers have received deportation orders since February. Their cases were addressed as the administration pushed forward with immigration matters that previously could languish in the system for years.

The administration terminated Temporary Protected Status for Somalia in January. Known as TPS, the program had protected eligible Somali nationals from deportation regardless of whether they possessed another legal basis to remain in the United States.

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That protection ended as the administration made additional changes to how Somali immigration cases are handled. In February, officials created an expedited immigration court docket specifically for Somali asylum cases.

The docket allows judges to decide cases that had been scheduled far into the future. The change is intended to move claims through immigration courts rather than allowing them to remain stuck amid millions of unresolved cases.

Federal officials maintain that faster proceedings can help legitimate asylum seekers while also ensuring that unsuccessful applicants can be removed. That approach puts decisions ahead of the years of delay that had come to define too many cases.

“Unnecessary delay hurts both aliens with meritorious claims and the American public who wish to see aliens with non-meritorious claims removed as quickly as possible,” an immigration court spokesman said.

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The shift comes while immigration courts remain overwhelmed by millions of unresolved cases. For Somali nationals in Minnesota, the accelerated process has already produced final removal orders, detention transfers and completed deportations.

Some Somali nationals who received final removal orders have already been deported. Others have been transferred into federal detention as authorities continue carrying out the administration’s enforcement policies.

ICE recently transported eight detainees through Guantánamo Bay before removing them to Africa. The agency said members of that group had criminal histories involving aggravated assault, weapons offenses, robbery, larceny, obstruction, drug offenses and DUI.

The administration has also expanded the use of third country deportations. Under that practice, authorities can send migrants to cooperating nations when returning them to their countries of origin is not possible.

“Third country agreements are helping close one of the loopholes in our immigration system that has far too often been abused with false claims,” ICE said in a statement.

The rise in deportation orders also follows Operation Metro Surge, the administration’s major immigration enforcement crackdown in Minnesota last winter. The operation was launched in response to reports of massive welfare fraud within the Somali population.

Operation Metro Surge began in December 2025 and resulted in thousands of arrests. Federal agents targeted illegal immigrants across Minnesota during the operation, bringing a much more aggressive enforcement posture to the state.

Taken together, the termination of TPS, the expedited court docket, expanded third country removals and Operation Metro Surge have reshaped immigration enforcement involving Somali nationals in Minnesota. The nearly tenfold increase in deportation orders shows that cases once left waiting are now moving toward decisions and removal.

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