Minnesota is seeing a surge in federal enforcement after new fraud allegations involving day care centers, with both the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI pointing to alleged misconduct in childcare and related federal programs. The actions came this week as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel announced increased operations in the state. The federal move also followed a video posted by a right-wing influencer that claimed Somali-run day care centers in Minneapolis had committed up to $100 million in fraud.
At a Monday news conference, Tikki Brown, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families, said state regulators took the influencer’s allegations seriously. Brown’s remarks reflected the state’s role in child care oversight as the federal investigation ramps up. Noem, in a post on social media, described the investigation as “conducting a massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud,” tying the federal response directly to the childcare allegations.
Patel said the investigation’s intent was to “dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs.” The federal leaders’ comments framed the effort as targeted enforcement against schemes they described as exploiting government funding. The announcements came after the influencer posted the Friday video that asserted the alleged fraud involved multiple day care centers operated by Somali residents in Minneapolis.
The new day care allegations land amid Minnesota’s longer-running fraud scrutiny affecting federal programs. The state has been under the spotlight for years for Medicaid fraud, including a pandemic-era case involving the nonprofit Feeding Our Future that prosecutors described as the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud scam. In that case, prosecutors said defendants exploited a state-run, federally funded program intended to provide food for children.
According to the AP report, in 2022, during President Joe Biden’s administration, 47 people were charged, and the total grew to 78 in the ongoing investigation. The report also said that as of the latest count, 57 people had been convicted, either after pleading guilty or losing at trial, with many defendants described as being of Somali descent. It also described other investigations still underway, including additional fraud cases involving child care centers.
The broader political backdrop is also closely tied to immigration enforcement messaging. The AP report said President Donald Trump has previously linked the administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota’s Somali community to fraud cases involving government programs, many with defendants described as having roots in Somalia. The report said Trump’s immigration enforcement focus targeted the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, which is home to the largest Somali population in the country.
The report also detailed how immigration and community targeting are being debated politically. It said Trump described Minnesota Somalis using derogatory language and said he did not want them in the U.S. It added that Republicans have tried to blame Gov. Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, for the fraud, while Walz has said his administration would continue working with federal partners to stop fraud and catch fraudsters.
The AP report said Walz pointed to an audit due by late January as a way to provide a clearer picture of the extent of the fraud, while also acknowledging that a previously estimated $1 billion could be accurate. It also said Walz described his administration’s actions to prevent additional fraud and defended how his administration responded. Minnesota’s prominent Somali American, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, urged people not to blame an entire community for actions of “a relative few,” according to the report.