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Letter to the Hon. Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State and the Hon. Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary of Homeland Security - Klobuchar, Portman Urge Departments of State, Homeland Security to Extend Temporary Protected Status for Somalia

Letter

Date: July 16, 2018
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Immigration

Dear Secretary Pompeo and Secretary Nielsen:

We write to ask that you extend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalia. Unless the Administration takes action, the protections now in effect for many Somalis living in the United States will expire on September 17, 2018.

Somalis have had protected status in the United States since President George H.W. Bush first approved TPS for Somalia in response to its civil war in 1991. That status has been extended 22 times under presidents from both parties.

Conditions in Somalia remain dire, and armed conflict continues to be a threat to the Somali people. Somalia experienced its worst terrorist attack in history last year, with a truck bomb in the capital of Mogadishu killing over 500 people. Between January 2016 and October 2017, the United Nations reported 4,585 civilian causalities resulting from armed conflict in Somalia. In addition to these security risks, droughts have compromised millions of Somalis' access to food, and poverty and famine remain widespread.

Thank you for your prompt consideration of this important issue.

Sincerely,


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