The president said any naturalized citizen convicted of fraud faces immediate deportation.
President Donald Trump vowed to revoke the citizenship of naturalized immigrants from Somalia and elsewhere who are convicted of fraud during a speech in Detroit Jan. 13.
“We’re going to get them the hell out of here fast,” Trump said during a speech to the Detroit Economic Club at the MotorCity Casino Hotel.
“If you come to America to rob Americans, we’re throwing you in jail, and we’re sending you back to the place from where you came,” Trump said. “We’re throwing you right in jail.”
The president’s comments were the latest to target a recent massive fraud investigation in Minnesota, where a majority of the alleged or convicted fraudsters are Somali immigrants, and other states.
The Trump administration is probing daycare centers, social services, government-funded food programs, financial loan services, and immigration programs in Minnesota, where officials said systemwide fraud has resulted in a loss of possibly billions of federal dollars.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) said at a hearing in the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held last week that more than $9 billion may have been lost in taxpayer funds through fraudulent operations in the state.
“We need to get ahead of the criminals, continue to help the Department of Justice in arresting, prosecuting, and jailing those responsible, and ensure federal programs serve those who are truly in need,” Comer, the committee chairman, said Jan. 13 during a committee hearing to discuss solutions to prevent future fraud.
Trump said his administration remained committed to uncovering the corruption and fraud.
“As we liberate our country from this cultural scourge, and the plague of corruption and fraud, we’ll rediscover the natural energy and native spirit that truly makes America great again,” he said in Detroit. “Our country wasn’t built by people who tried to lie and cheat and scam their way to success.
“We have a great America, and we’re going to enrich it,” Trump said. “We’re putting the productive, hard-working American citizen at the center of every single thing that we do. They were the ones that built America, and they will build it up again.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Jan. 13 that the United States had terminated Somalia’s designation for Temporary Protected Status effective on March 17.
“Country conditions in Somalia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law’s requirement for Temporary Protected Status,” Noem said in a statement. “We are putting Americans first.”
There are 2,471 Somali nationals in the United States under the status, and another 1,383 are in the country with pending applications. The status has been in place since 1991 and was extended in 2024 by the Biden administration until March 17, 2026, because of ongoing armed conflict in the country.
The cancellation of status means Somali nationals in the United States who do not have a legal status must leave the United States by the deadline.
