A surge in federal officers in Minnesota is focusing on alleged fraud at day care centers

A surge of federal officers in Minnesota follows new allegations of fraud by day care centers run by Somali residents.

President Donald Trump has previously linked his administration’s immigration crackdown against Minnesota’s large Somali community to a series of fraud cases involving government programs in which most of the defendants have roots in the east African country.

Republican leaders in the state are making some demands of Governor Tim Walz in the wake of the recent investigations into child care centers in Minneapolis.

House Speaker Lisa DeMuth, who is running for governor against Walz, is calling for the administration to release the documents related to fraud to the legislature and the media.

"The Walz administration had years to address these issues, but has frequently ignored or downplayed the issues at every turn," said Demuth. "We would like the Walz administration to consider stopping payments in the other 13 high-risk programs."

Republican Minority leader Harry Niska also questioned why nobody has been held accountable.

"Why has no agency official been fired or publicly disciplined for these failures," he asked.

Walz released a statement following the recent visit by homeland security saying he's "worked for years to crack down on fraud," and has asked the state legislature for more authority to take "ggressive action."

On Monday, a group of five Minnesota GOP legislators called for Walz to resign.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel both announced an increase in operations in Minnesota this week. The move comes after a right-wing influencer posted a video Friday claiming he had found 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 Monday news conference that state regulators took the influencer's allegations seriously.

"Each of the facilities mentioned in the video has been visited at least once in the last six months as part of our typical licensing process," Brown explained Monday. "And in fact, our staff are out in the community today to visit each of these sites again so that we can look into the concerns that were raised in the video."

Noem posted on social media that officers were “conducting a massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud.” Patel said the intent was to “dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs.”

Many of the targets for the feds came not from tips, but a video of some of these day care centers, posted by conservative social media influencer Nick Shirley. That video has gone viral with more than 100 million views. The video posted by Shirley include allegations that these centers receive public funds and are not actually providing any service.

That prompted the FBI and Noem to ramp up investigations at 30 locations in Minneapolis, even posting some video of interactions at these centers.

There's no word on if any action was taken by the state of federal law enforcement, and at least so far, there's no legal action that has been announced regarding any of these day care centers stemming from those allegations.

Minnesota has been under the spotlight for years for Medicaid fraud, including a massive $300 million pandemic fraud case involving the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. Prosecutors said it was the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud scam and that defendants exploited a state-run, federally funded program intended to provide food for children.

In 2022, during President Joe Biden’s administration, 47 people were charged. The number of defendants has grown to 78 throughout the ongoing investigation.

So far, 57 people have been convicted, either because they pleaded guilty or lost at trial.

Most of the defendants are of Somali descent.

Numerous other fraud cases are being investigated, including new allegations focused on child care centers.

In news interviews, including with WCCO's Chad Hartman, and press releases over the summer, prosecutor Joe Thompson estimated the total loss from all fraud cases could exceed $1 billion. Earlier this month, a federal prosecutor alleged that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen.

Trump's immigration enforcement in Minnesota has focused on the Somali community in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, which is the largest in the country.

Trump labeled Minnesota Somalis as “garbage” and said he didn’t want them in the U.S.

About 84,000 of the 260,000 Somalis in the U.S. live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The overwhelming majority are U.S. citizens. Almost 58% were born in the U.S and 87% of the foreign-born are naturalized citizens.

Among those running schemes to get funds for child nutrition, housing services and autism programs, 82 of the 92 defendants are Somali Americans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, has said fraud will not be tolerated and his administration “will continue to work with federal partners to ensure fraud is stopped and fraudsters are caught.”

The fraud could be a major issue in the 2026 gubernatorial race as Walz seeks a third term.

Walz has said an audit due by late January should give a better picture of the extent of the fraud but allowed that the $1 billion estimate could be accurate. He said his administration is taking aggressive action to prevent additional fraud. He has long defended how his administration responded.

Minnesota’s most prominent Somali American, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, has urged people not to blame an entire community for the actions of a relative few.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.