Thirty-five years ago, the United States decided that Somalia was too dangerous for its citizens to return home. That was understandable. What is harder to understand is why “temporary” protection granted in 1991 is still being litigated in 2026.
On Friday, August 14, a federal judge cleared the Trump administration to proceed with deportations of Somali TPS holders whose protection is set to expire. The ruling matters enormously. It forces us to confront a question we have avoided for decades: when does a temporary humanitarian exception stop being temporary?
Cast your mind back to 1991. George H.W. Bush sat in the Oval Office. The Soviet Union was collapsing, taking an entire geopolitical order with it. The internet was only entering public consciousness, and the U.S. had just swept through the Gulf War with military efficiency. Mogadishu was tearing itself apart as Siad Barre’s dictatorship imploded, throwing the Horn of Africa into chaos. It made complete sense for Washington to offer shelter to fleeing Somalis.
Fast forward three and a half decades. An entire generation has grown up, and the word temporary has been stretched beyond recognition.
The left often frames immigration enforcement as a morality play between compassion and cruelty, treating any attempt to enforce immigration law as an act of heartless malice. I reject that binary.
