The Trump administration said Tuesday that it is ending the Temporary Protected Status program for Somali immigrants, a move that will likely face court challenges and could affect some of the several thousand Somalis living in Maine.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the White House said Somali nationals covered under the program known as TPS must leave the U.S. by March 17. The U.S. first opened the temporary humanitarian program to people from Somalia in 1991 amid the outbreak of a civil war. The African nation has been mired in a series of conflicts in the decades since.

The U.S. designates countries for TPS due to conditions such as an ongoing armed conflict, environmental disasters or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions.”

There are reportedly close to 2,500 Somali nationals currently in the U.S. under the program. It was not immediately clear how many Somali nationals in Maine would be affected by Trump’s move, but the Somali population in Maine is close to 3,000. Most people who fled Somalia and moved to Maine in the past few decades have roots in Lewiston and Androscoggin County.

The Trump administration previously moved to end TPS for people from Haiti, South Sudan, Afghanistan and Venezuela. Some of these moves have been subject to legal challenges; in October, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the administration to continue phasing out the program for Venezuelans.

President Donald Trump’s move on Tuesday came weeks after he called Somali immigrants “garbage,” and comes amid a Somali-focused immigration crackdown in Minnesota. Numerous Somalis in that state have been linked to a social services fraud scandal. In Maine, a Portland company and MaineCare provider that was founded by a Somali American is also the subject of a fraud inquiry.

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, D-1st District, criticized the Trump administration’s move in a post to the social media site Bluesky.

“This is so cruel and vindictive,” she wrote. “Trump’s decision to revoke Temporary Protected Status from every Somali in the U.S. will put lives at risk, including here in Maine.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement Tuesday that “conditions in Somalia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law’s requirement for Temporary Protected Status.”

“Further, allowing Somali nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interests,” Noem said. “We are putting Americans first.”