The Trump administration is going door to door investigating childcare fraud in Minnesota’s Somali immigrant community as the scandal continues to receive national attention.
The Department of Homeland Security sent investigative agents to examine Somali-run childcare facilities to determine whether they are abusing taxpayer funds after a YouTuber brought national attention to seemingly empty daycares receiving public funding.
“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,” DHS announced Tuesday on social media.
“Our agents are conducting a massive operation to identify, arrest, and remove criminals who are defrauding the American people at daycares, healthcare facilities, and other suspected sites. We will not stop until we’ve rooted out this rampant fraud plaguing Minnesota,” the agency said in a follow-up post.
Accompanying the posts were videos of DHS agents talking to employees for their investigation. DHS has not announced any new arrests or criminal charges up to this point.
The door-to-door investigation comes after Nick Shirley went viral earlier this week for sharing a video of himself visiting Somali-run facilities and asking about where the taxpayer funds are going. Shirley’s video garnered over 100 million views on X and caught the eye of Vice President JD Vance and other political leaders.
Somali welfare fraud across various government programs under Minnesota governor Tim Walz (D) has become a national scandal and the target of increased federal scrutiny. Earlier this month, prosecutors announced they were broadening their sweeping investigation into fraud, with a focus on 14 different Medicaid-funded programs meant to help the poor. Federal prosecutors’ initial assessment concluded that over half of the $18 billion of federal funds spent on the programs since 2018 was fraudulent.
Six additional defendants were charged in December for the ongoing fraud scandal, bringing the total number of defendants to 98 thus far. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Monday that 85 of the defendants are Somali and more than 60 individuals have been found guilty. She thanked law enforcement for its role investigating the Covid-19 fraud scheme Feeding Our Future for which 78 defendants have been charged, including 72 people of Somali descent. Several Feeding Our Future defendants attempted to bribe jurors and faced prosecution for doing so.
“We have more prosecutions coming…BUCKLE UP, LAWMAKERS!” Bondi said, seemingly hinting at prosecutions of Minnesota politicians.
Relatedly, Feeding Our Future defendants were involved in defrauding an autism services program by setting up an unqualified autism therapy clinic and providing kickbacks to Somali parents who enrolled their children at the clinic. They submitted fraudulent and inflated reimbursements to Medicaid on behalf of the clinic and the partners split the proceeds. Moreover, fraudsters carried out a scheme to defraud federally-funded healthcare benefits linked to Minnesota’s housing stabilization program for the disabled, seniors, and the mentally ill.
The Somali fraud scandal has become a major issue for Walz and rattled Minnesota state politics because of its scale. Walz is running for re-election after being Kamala Harris’s running mate for her failed 2024 presidential campaign. In October, Walz ordered an audit of the 14 welfare programs tied to the federal investigation and bolstered Minnesota’s fraud-detection capabilities. More recently, he praised the latest round of criminal charges against the six defendants. Walz’s shift is happening as his administration faces immense scrutiny for neglecting the Somali welfare fraud.
“This is exactly the type of strong action we need from prosecutors to ensure fraudsters are put behind bars,” Walz said in a statement. “We will not tolerate fraud, and we will continue to work with federal partners to ensure fraud is stopped and fraudsters are caught.”
The Trump administration has cited the Somali fraud case as a telltale example of why the U.S. needs to mass deport illegal immigrants, especially those coming from dysfunctional third-world countries. In a Thanksgiving post, Trump mocked Walz for being “retarded” and claimed Somali gangs had taken over Minnesota, leaving people afraid to go outside.