Tag Archives: Somali community

An Interesting Contrast

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On Wednesday, Newsbusters posted an article contrasting the news coverage of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) activities in Minnesota in January and the anti-fraud actions in Minnesota.

The article includes two illustrations of the contrast:

The article reports:

The following is the sum total of broadcast evening news show coverage on the April 28 raids:

TOM LLAMAS: In Minnesota tonight, federal and state agents executing more than 20 search warrants at businesses across the Twin Cities, raids linked to a growing fraud scandal that has reached the steps of The White House. Maggie Vespa has been following this one for us and has this story.

MAGGIE VESPA: Tonight, new raids rocking Minnesota, with video showing federal and state authorities executing more than 20 search warrants at sites across the Twin Cities, including autism centers, child care facilities and at least one senior center. All, federal authorities say, tied to allegations of widespread welfare fraud within Minnesota’s large Somali community.

NICK SHIRLEY: It’s just a simple question: where are the children at?

VESPA: Allegations reignited by this viral video posted four months ago by a right-wing influencer claiming multiple Somali-run child care centers in Minnesota were fraudulently collecting state subsidies while sitting empty. But according to the state agency in charge, those centers were operating “as expected.” Today’s raids marking the boldest move yet by a White House fraud task force led by Vice President Vance.

JD VANCE: You have families who need these services, who are unable to get them, because people are getting rich off of fraud schemes.

VESPA: The Trump administration repeatedly citing the fraud allegations as cause for launching high-profile immigration raids in Minneapolis earlier this year, during which at least two U.S. citizens were shot and killed. Governor Tim Walz denouncing the ICE operations but applauding today’s raids. And the Minnesota Department of Human Services saying they’re “fed up” with people taking advantage of the system.

LLAMAS: And Maggie, you’re at one of the centers raided today. You just talked to an employee there. What’d they tell you?

VESPA: Yeah Tom, that’s right. She just came to this door behind me, she told me she’s been turning parents away all day, and that the owner right now isn’t here to comment. It’s worth noting we reached out to him as well as two other centers. So far, no response. We also mentioned Governor Walz in that piece. He dropped his reelection bid amid this fraud scandal. He’s set to give his final State of the State tonight. Tom.

LLAMAS: Maggie Vespa for us. Maggie, we thank you.

What would the current budget deficit look like without the fraud?

Wasn’t Anyone Paying Attention?

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On Friday, American Greatness posted an article related to the Somali fraud in Minnesota.

The article reports:

A TSA whistleblower has come forward to say she routinely witnessed Somalian immigrants flying out of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport carrying suitcases stuffed with millions of dollars of cash and fake passports.

“It seemed so lackadaisical that these people could get through the airport with all that cash,” the former TSA agent told Alpha News reporter Liz Collin, this week. “Time after time after time. It wasn’t a one time thing.”

She said “it was frustrating to see it when I was a TSA agent and it’s certainly frustrating now watching this state’s administration.”

During a press conference in St. Paul, Friday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) attempted to downplay the massive amount of fraud that has been perpetrated by his state’s Somali community.

…She (the whistleblower) added that it “really blew her mind” because they were always able to get through the checkpoints.

“Typically, what would happen is a law enforcement officer would come, check their credentials,” she told Collin, adding that it wouldn’t be too difficult to identify them now because there is a paper trail of their travels, as well as surveillance video.

“Their I.D.s were always documented and probably their plane tickets as well,” she explained. “So there is a trail of that out there.”

The whistleblower estimated that in the five years she was a TSA agent at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport at least “a billion dollars went through the airport.”

The former agent said in one instance, a Somali man has a carry on bag “filled with brand new passports,” lamenting that “he was allowed to go through the checkpoint.”

We are less than a year into the Trump administration and this corruption is now coming to light. Where was the Biden administration during their four years in office? How did they miss this (or did they)?

Another Step Away From The Constitution

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On Tuesday, Townhall posted an article reporting that a Minnesota judge has thrown out a jury’s guilty verdict.

The article reports:

We’ve told you quite a bit about Minnesota’s ongoing fraud problems, the vast majority of them stemming from the large Somali population in and around Minneapolis. The state has paused Medicaid payments over fraud concerns (and that fraud has led to at least one death), and millions of dollars were laundered through the Feeding Our Future program and state housing programs, too. A lot of that money ended up in the hands of Al-Shabaab, the largest terrorist group in Somalia.

Despite all the evidence of fraud, a Minnesota judge has just overturned a jury’s guilty verdict in one Medicare fraud case, paving the way for all the other fraud convictions to be overturned as well.

The jury heard that Yusuf and his wife were charged and the jury learned his “home health company” was operated out of a mailbox at an address where multiple other “home health companies” als operated. The state showed they spent tens of thousands of dollars on luxury items.

The jury quickly found the couple guilty. Now, a judge in Hennepin County, Sarah West, has overturned that verdict.

“It’s reversing or overturning a jury’s verdict,” said defense attorney Joe Tamburino. Tamburino was not affiliated with Yusuf’s case but looked at the judge’s decision.

According to Tamburino, Judge West said the state’s cased relied “heavily on circumstantial evidence” and that the state did not “exclude other reasonable, rational inferences.”

“That, in fact, there could’ve been other reasonable theories other than guilt in this case. That’s what it comes down to,” Tamburino said.

Remind me again why we have juries.

There are a number of legal cases working their way through the courts involving Feeding Our Future. The writers at Power Line Blog have followed these cases (some recent examples here and here). The amount of fraud is unbelievable and people need to be held accountable.

Welfare Fraud In Minnesota

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Not every country in the world is interested in ethical behavior. America, even with its flaws, values honesty. Many years ago, my husband and I were talking to a missionary who trained pastors in another country. He talked about the problem of explaining to them that it was wrong to cheat on their exams. In their country, cheating was no big deal. America needs to consider the values of the countries it accepts immigrants from or we will find ourselves dealing with pockets of immigrants who see nothing wrong with cheating. We are dealing with that problem now in Minnesota.

On Wednesday, The City Journal reported:

Minnesota is drowning in fraud. Billions in taxpayer dollars have been stolen during the administration of Governor Tim Walz alone. Democratic state officials, overseeing one of the most generous welfare regimes in the country, are asleep at the switch. And the media, duty-bound by progressive pieties, refuse to connect the dots.

In many cases, the fraud has allegedly been perpetrated by members of Minnesota’s sizeable Somali community. Federal counterterrorism sources confirm that millions of dollars in stolen funds have been sent back to Somalia, where they ultimately landed in the hands of the terror group Al-Shabaab. As one confidential source put it: “The largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer.”

Our investigation shows what happens when a tribal mindset meets a bleeding-heart bureaucracy, when imported clan loyalties collide with a political class too timid to offend, and when accusations of racism are cynically deployed to shield criminal behavior. The predictable result is graft, with taxpayers left to foot the bill.

The article continues:

If you were to design a welfare program to facilitate fraud, it would probably look a lot like Minnesota’s Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program. The HSS program, the first of its kind in the country, was launched with a noble goal: to help seniors, addicts, the disabled, and the mentally ill secure housing. It was designed with “low barriers to entry” and “minimal requirements for reimbursement.” Nonetheless, before the program went live in 2020, officials pegged its annual estimated price tag at $2.6 million.

Costs quickly spiraled out of control. In 2021, the program paid out more than $21 million in claims. In the following years, annual costs shot up to $42 million, then $74 million, then $104 million. During the first six months of 2025, payouts totaled $61 million.

On August 1, Minnesota’s Department of Human Services moved to scrap the HSS program, noting that payment to 77 housing-stabilization providers had been terminated this year due to “credible allegations of fraud.” Joe Thompson, then the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota, went even further, stating that the “vast majority” of the HSS program was fraudulent.

The article concludes:

The first step to solving a problem is acknowledging it. By extension, that means recognizing the problem’s true source. So far, Minnesota’s governing class and its media establishment have failed to take that basic step. Minnesotans will have to confront the uncomfortable but unavoidable reality: members of the Somali community have played a central role in the massive fraud now engulfing the North Star State.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. There is no reason that American taxpayers should be funding terrorism!