WASHINGTON: The Trump administration in recent months has latched onto news of a large-scale public benefit fraud scandal to carry out immigration raids and harsher policies targeting Minnesota's large Somali migrant community.

Federal charges have been filed against 98 people accused of embezzlement of public funds and -- as Attorney General Pam Bondi stressed on Monday -- 85 of the defendants are "of Somali descent."

Fifty-seven people have already been convicted in the scheme to divert $300 million in public grants intended to distribute free meals to children -- but the meals never existed, prosecutors said.

“What's happening in Minnesota is a microcosm of the immigration fraud in our system,” Vice President JD Vance posted on X.

"Politicians like it because they get power. Welfare cheats like it because they get rich. But it's a zero-sum game, and they're stealing both money and political power from Minnesotans."

80,000 members

Republican elected officials and federal prosecutors accuse local Democratic authorities of turning a blind eye to numerous warnings because the fraud involved Minnesota’s Somali community, the largest in the country, with around 80,000 members.

“When whistleblowers raised concerns, they were told that they shouldn't say anything out of fear of being called racist or Islamophobic, or because it was going to hurt political constituency of the governor and the ruling party, the Democrats here,” state representative Kristin Robbins, a Republican who is running for governor, told AFP.

Walz rejects accusation

Democratic Governor Tim Walz -- former vice president Kamala Harris's unsuccessful running mate in 2024 -- rejects the accusation.

While the case became public in 2022, prosecutors ramped it up again this year with hotly politicized revelations.

Another Republican candidate for governor, state house speaker Lisa Demuth, told AFP the case is “finally getting the attention that it's needed.”

Right-leaning YouTube content creator Nick Shirley reignited interest in the case over the holidays with a video that he claims shows daycare centers which are siphoning public money.

The video -- which blew up on X with 127 million views and played repeatedly on Fox News -- resonated with Trump's "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) circles, who are opposed to what they deem to be overly generous social and immigration policies.

The Trump administration responded to the outcry immediately, with Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin telling Fox News that hundreds of investigators were targeting local businesses in Minneapolis.

“We believe that there is rampant fraud, whether it be daycare centers, health care centers, or other organizations,” she said.

As part of the crackdown, federal health officials announced a broad freeze of funding to Minnesota and across the country.

“We have frozen all child care payments to the state of Minnesota,” Health and Human Services (HHS) deputy Jim O'Neill wrote in an X post Tuesday.

HHS has broad spending oversight for programs for the underprivileged, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, early education of toddlers and foster care.

Calls to strip US citizenship

Minnesota congressman Tom Emmer, a leading figure in the Republican majority of Congress, called for mass “denaturalization and deportation of every Somali engaged in fraud in Minnesota,” in an X post Monday.

President Donald Trump preceded Emmer's call with similar sentiments at the end of November, when a conservative outlet claimed money embezzled in Minnesota was being used to fund Somalia's Al-Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda linked Islamist militant group.

That accusation has since been denied by the prosecutor in the case.

But the US president was quick to accuse “Somali gangs” of “terrorizing” Minnesotans and ended their Temporary Protected Status, a program that exempted Somalis from deportation to their war-torn country.

'Trash'

A week later, Trump escalated the rhetoric, saying Somalia “stinks” and calling Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar -- who is of Somali origin – “trash.”

A surge in immigration raids followed those comments, creating “a dangerous atmosphere of chaos and instability that is making it harder for our police officers to keep Minneapolis safe,” mayor Jacob Frey said at the time.

Democratic lawmaker Zaynab Mohamed, whose family emigrated from Somalia when she was a child, decried the Trump administration’s actions.

“Trump is scapegoating a tiny piece of the population,” she said.

“This is not about crime. It’s not about safety. This is about purging people like me from this country.”

Articles tagged with "Somali Americans"

Trump admin seizes on fraud case to target Somali immigrants