A recent increase in the number of federal law enforcement officers operating in Minnesota follows new allegations of fraud involving day care centers run by Somali residents, according to officials familiar with the investigations.
President Donald Trump has previously connected his administration’s stepped-up immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota to a series of fraud cases tied to government assistance programs, many of which have involved defendants with roots in Somalia, ABC7 reports.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel announced this week that federal operations in Minnesota would be expanded.
The announcements followed the release of a video Friday by independent journalist Nick Shirley, who alleged that day care centers operated by Somali residents in Minneapolis had committed up to $100 million in fraud.
Tikki Brown, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families, said at a news conference Monday that state regulators were taking the allegations seriously, ABC7 said.
Noem posted on social media that officers were “conducting a massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud.” Patel said the goal was to “dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs.”
Minnesota has faced heightened scrutiny for years over Medicaid fraud, including the roughly $300 million pandemic-era case involving the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. Prosecutors have described it as the largest COVID-19–related fraud scheme in the United States, alleging that defendants exploited a state-administered, federally funded program intended to provide meals for children.
The investigation began during the administration of Joe Biden. In 2022, federal prosecutors charged 47 individuals, a figure that has since grown to 78 as the case has expanded.
To date, 57 defendants have been convicted, either through guilty pleas or trial verdicts. Court records show that most of those charged are of Somali descent, noted ABC7.
Authorities say several additional fraud investigations remain ongoing, including new allegations centered on child care centers.
In interviews and press releases over the summer, federal prosecutor Joe Thompson estimated that total losses across multiple fraud cases in Minnesota could exceed $1 billion. Earlier this month, another federal prosecutor alleged that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funding provided to 14 programs in the state since 2018 may have been misappropriated.
Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota have largely focused on the Somali community in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area, which is the largest such community in the United States. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota, 85 of the 98 defendants charged in cases involving alleged fraud tied to child nutrition, housing assistance, and autism programs are Somali Americans.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi made the arrest announcement on Monday. Bondi said additional prosecutions are expected as the investigations continue.
Her announcement followed the release of a series of videos by Shirley. “[Nick Shirley’s] work has helped show Americans the scale of fraud in Tim Walz’s Minnesota,” Bondi said in an X statement late Monday.
“@TheJusticeDepartment has been investigating this for months. So far, we have charged 98 individuals — 85 of Somali descent — and more than 60 have been found guilty in court,” she continued. “We have more prosecutions coming… BUCKLE UP, LAWMAKERS!”
Bondi went on to describe several of the cases they’d already prosecuted, including the Feeding Our Future scheme and a connected juror bribery case — a situation which, as Bondi noted, was “not unlike what you would see in the corrupt Somali judicial system.”
In September, a media release from the Department of Justice alleged that 28-year-old Asha Farhan Hassan received nearly $500,000 for her involvement in a $14 million autism fraud case.
“From November 2019 through December 2024, Asha Hassan and others devised and carried out a scheme to defraud the EIDBI autism services program. Hassan formed and registered Smart Therapy LLC with the Minnesota Secretary of State in November 2019. Hassan listed herself as the sole owner of Smart Therapy,” said the release.
“Shortly after forming the company, Hassan enrolled Smart Therapy as a provider agency in the EIDBI program. …Hassan also enrolled Smart Therapy in the Federal Child Nutrition Program under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future,” it added.
Judge’s Ruling Exposes Another Massive Democrat Lie While Handing Trump A ‘W’-llllllllllll
For months, Democrats have flatly insisted that illegal immigrants aren’t receiving taxpayer-funded health care through Medicare or Medicaid. They’ve repeated it endlessly, with the media dutifully nodding along. Just two weeks ago, House Speaker Mike Johnson even released a video montage laying it all out—Democrats and their press allies, on camera, swearing up and down that this simply isn’t happening.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins said, “People who are here in the United States illegally have never been eligible for the Obamacare subsidies, for Medicare, or for Medicaid.” Her colleague Jake Tapper also said it wasn’t happening, telling Johnson himself, “So just as a point of fact,” Tapper said, “it’s against the law for non-citizens to get those subsidies.”
Meet the Press host Kristen Welker also claimed it wasn’t happening. “Undocumented immigrants, as you know, are actually ineligible for federal healthcare…Right now, undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federal healthcare programs,” she said
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also said similar things. Gavin Newsom proved them all liars, as Johnson’s video showed.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer were singing the same tune, insisting illegal immigrants weren’t getting Medicaid. California Gov. Gavin Newsom blew that talking point to pieces, as Speaker Mike Johnson’s video made painfully clear.
Now a federal judge has dealt Democrats yet another blow—this time from the bench. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria ruled in favor of the Trump administration, allowing it to share location data on illegal immigrants receiving public health insurance benefits with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, beginning in January:
Well, gosh. How is it possible that President Trump can share Medicaid info with ICE after Dems have sworn time and time again that illegal aliens aren’t getting Medicaid?
Gee, how can President Trump share Medicaid data with ICE when Democrats have sworn up and down that illegal immigrants aren’t getting Medicaid?
Chhabria wrote in the seven-page order: “The sharing of such information is clearly authorized by law, and the agencies have adequately explained their decisions.”
Democrat-run states fought the data sharing tooth and nail—and of course they did—which is exactly why the case dragged its way through the courts, with California joined by 21 other blue states running interference.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the Trump administration back in July in a last-ditch effort to block the use of Medicaid data to identify and locate illegal immigrants. A spokesperson for the California Department of Justice even claimed that illegal immigrants enrolled in the state’s health care system under the belief their information would be used only for medical purposes.
“The Trump Administration’s effort to use Medicaid data for immigration enforcement is a violation of their trust and will lead to fewer people seeking vital healthcare,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
If this decision results in a decrease in undocumented individuals relying on taxpayer funds for healthcare — healthcare that Democrats claimed they weren’t receiving initially — then that’s a very good thing.
Politico even acknowledges that individuals who are in the country illegally do not qualify for federal Medicaid programs; however, states like California, Illinois, Colorado, New York, Washington, Oregon, and Minnesota permit Medicaid enrollment regardless of immigration status.
The ruling restricts data sharing concerning people in the U.S. illegally and may encompass details such as citizenship, immigration status, residence address, phone number, date of birth, and Medicaid identification number. Additionally, it forbids the collection of information from other immigrants utilizing Medicaid and prevents HHS and ICE from sharing any “potentially sensitive medical information.”
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the ruling is a “victory for the rule of law and American taxpayers,” and she’s exactly right. Next: Let’s start seeing the guilty pay the price. Wait…that seems to be happening.