MINNEAPOLIS, MN- As the scandal involving the Somali community, the Minnesota state government, and empty day care centers spirals, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has begun a targeted operation of day cares and other sites that are suspected of being involved in what is being called a multi-billion dollar fraud scheme, The New York Post reported.
The scheme, which involves bogus autism programs, fake food handouts, phony day care centers, and housing subsidies, has already seen $1 billion in fraud confirmed. Some estimates put the total fraud at as much as $9 billion, which authorities say was the brainchild of predominantly Somali nationals. And that is just in Minnesota.
The scheme involves over $300 million in fake food handouts, $220 million in bogus autism programs, and $302 million in housing subsidies that never benefited those in need, according to a Fox News breakdown of the fraud, The Post reported.
On Monday, a daycare worker told The Post that “masked” ICE agents showed up at the facility and demanded paperwork from her.
In a post on X, the Department of Homeland Security wrote, “DHS is on the ground in Minneapolis, going DOOR to DOOR at suspected fraud sites.”
“The American people deserve answers on how their taxpayer money is being used and ARRESTS when abuse is found.”
The scheme took place under the [not so] watchful eye of Minnesota governor and failed vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison, both Democrats.
Thus far, 78 people have been charged in connection with the so-called “Feeding Our Future” scheme, which federal authorities allege is the largest COVID-19 fraud in the country, with over $250 million stolen from child nutrition programs. That is believed to be the tip of the iceberg. According to KSAT, 82 of 92 defendants across all related fraud cases are of Somali descent.
The federal government stepped up its investigations into the fraud after a video showed taxpayer-funded “daycare” facilities that received over $1 million in taxpayer funds had zero or few children in attendance.
In one case, the Quality “Learing” Center, whose name was misspelled, was highlighted in the video, but on Monday it reportedly had children in attendance after the alleged fraud was discovered, The Post reported.
“We’ve never seen kids go in there until today. That parking lot is empty all the time, and I was under the impression that place is permanently closed,” according to a local. The posted hours at the “daycare” are 2 to 10 p.m.
When a reporter from The Post approached the facility, employees cursed at him. The outlet reported that kids were bused into the facility after the alleged fraud went public.
Minneapolis media also reported that the site of the “daycare” had been cited 95 times by state inspectors since 2019.
“Right now in Minneapolis, Homeland Security Investigations and ICE are on the ground conducting a large-scale investigation on fraudulent day care and health care centers, as well as other rampant fraud,” DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement provided to The Post.
DHS shared a video in which two immigration officers enter a business outside Minneapolis and ask the woman behind the counter about a nearby building that the agents said looked closed, and asked her if she had “seen any people come and go from there” in recent days.
She said she wasn’t working the day before and had no information to share.
In another video posted by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the same two agents asked a man outside an unidentified business about subcontractors they work with.
“Are there any subcontractors you guys deal with, say any other business partners you use for services, transportation, or anything like that?” the agent asked.
The man’s response is unintelligible in the video, The Post wrote.
The fraud scheme involved newly formed businesses and nonprofits that claimed to provide services such as housing, food, or healthcare assistance and then billed federally funded state programs for the non-existent work, leading to at least hundreds of millions in fraud, possibly much more.
In a post on X, FBI Director Kash Patel said that, based on what is known thus far, it is likely “just the tip of a very large iceberg,” prompting the agency to deploy scores of investigators to the state to eradicate the schemes before more taxpayer money is pilfered.
“To date, the FBI dismantled a $250 million fraud scheme that stole federal food aid meant for vulnerable children during COVID,” the director wrote on X. “The investigation exposed sham vendors, shell companies, and large-scale money laundering tied to the Feed Our Future network.”
Some Somalis are angry that their fellow countrymen are defrauding the country, saying it makes them all look bad.
“I’m hearing all these fraud cases, and it’s affecting all of us,” he said. “They have to be accountable,” he said of the scammers. He emphasized that it’s “not actually the whole community. The community is very hard-working,” he said, noting that he works 16 hours a day.
“Some people are taking advantage of the system. We are very upset, and we can’t do anything about it.”
While not all immigrants are (obviously) not criminals, a significant portion of them are. According to federal officials, they have uncovered “wide-ranging” immigration fraud in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metro, following a recent operation, and found that half of all immigrants in the Twin Cities area had engaged in some form of immigration fraud.
“Officers encountered blatant marriage fraud [hello Ilhan Omar], visa overstay, people claiming to work as businesses that can’t be found, forged documents, abuse of the H1B system, abuse of the F1 visa, and many other discrepancies,” US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph B. Edlow told reporters in September when the sweep occurred.
While officials didn’t identify a specific group of immigrants, Minneapolis-St. Paul has seen a significant increase in Somali refugees and migrants in recent years, with over 82,000 people from Somalia now living in Minnesota, the largest population of Somalis in the country.
A former Minneapolis sheriff blamed the Minnesota culture of “nice” and a tendency to avoid confrontation as the reason Somalis felt comfortable settling in the state, which he claims laid the groundwork for the spread of immigration fraud and now welfare and other types of fraud.
Rich Stanek spent 12 years as Hennepin County sheriff and told The Post he believes local left-wing officials have been turning a blind eye to the fraud and abuse that has been occurring for, in his mind, decades. He believes it is all politically motivated to cultivate support for their agendas.
“You’ve had several governors in a row—Mark Dayton and Tim Walz—who have ignored it. You had local officials in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Hennepin, Ramsey County, that have ignored it,” Stanek told The Post. “It’s all about votes.”
Walz has been under increasing pressure to resign amid the scandal, with Fox News reporting that Education Secretary Linda McMahon was among those calling for his resignation.
“You have been Minnesota’s governor since 2019,” McMahon wrote to Walz in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital. “During that time, your careless lack of oversight and abuse of the welfare system has attracted fraudsters from around the world, especially from Somalia, to establish a beachhead of criminality in our country. As President Trump put it, you have turned Minnesota into a ‘fraudulent hum of money laundering activity.”
In addition, Republicans in the Minnesota House and Senate are calling on Walz to resign.
“For the good of the state, Gov. Walz should step aside. Minnesota needs accountability, a reset, and new leadership that can get us back on the right track,” they wrote in a letter on Monday.
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