Minnesota’s Somali Fraud Crisis

Peri Stevens, VA - Writer 

Over $110,000,000 was discovered to provide funding to fraudulent day care centers in Minnesota; money that could’ve been used to help children receive food, clothes, and shelter has been used to fund ineffective operations within Somali daycare centers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Department of Health and Human Services has stated that it will withhold child care payments to Minnesota after the discovery of rampant fraud within the child care system over the span of multiple years, covering millions of federal and state-funded dollars.

Within the ever growing Somali community in Minneapolis, it was discovered by independent journalist, Nick Shirley, that Somalian day care facilities weren’t in operation. While these inactive facilities were receiving federal and state funding, one day care in particular has been estimated to have, supposedly, taken care of 99 children since 2022, and to have not performed required background checks for daycare operations. Over $9 billion in Medicaid funding has been used fraudulently to pay for these ghost daycares. The money given to these Somalian daycare centers were supposed to help fight housing insecurity and hungry children, according to Vice President J.D. Vance and FBI Director Kash Patel. 

The YouTube video, posted by Shirely, went viral just hours later. In addition to Shirely’s discovery, GOP Majority Whip, Tom Emmer, has begun seeking answers and accountability from the state of Minnesota and Governor Tim Walz after the viral YouTube video’s post. As a result, President Trump has withheld funds to child care systems and networks in Minnesota, in addition to the Department of Health and Human Services now requiring “photo evidence” of a need for child care funding from families in all U.S. states for “credible allegations of fraud,” as well as $10 billion dollars in funding being cut off from five given Democrat states with an assumption of fraud within social and child care programs within the states (California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, and Minnesota). As a result of the newly discovered issue, now is an investigation into a country wide fraud problem within the federal disability service, Integrated Community Supports, taking advantage of vulnerable clients.

To add onto the unfortunate situation, some of the funds given to the daycares could have the potential of indirectly helping to fund a Somali terrorist organization, al-Shabaab. 

This daycare scandal has displayed a growing problem within the largely populated Somalian community in Minnesota: Minnesota’s Somalian immigrant program has not been a net benefit for the state entirely.

Somalia, the East African country, has been provided a large support network for its refugees by the United States, and especially by Minnesota. Minnesota currently has around 80,000 Somalian individuals living within its borders. 

While Minnesota has open arms for Somali refugees, they didn’t predict this large of an influx of legal and illegal immigrants. Minnesota is now displaying the product of its leniency on immigration, with fraud scandals ranging hundreds of millions of dollars from past nutrition school program scandals being a $300 million dollar scheme within the nonprofit, Feeding Our Future, to newly discovered child care fraud. Fraud is a major issue in the Somali community of Minnesota. 

When an individual comes to the United States, on their own accord, refugee, Internally Displaced Person, or asylum seeker status, they are expected to try and assimilate to the culture. However, the Somalian community has been seen trying to separate themselves from American values entirely with Minnesota's encouragement.

America is a melting pot and continues to flourish that way. Bring your culture, bring your family, bring your voice; however, don't change American values.