Trump administration plans aggressive immigration crackdown with 2,000 agents in Minnesota amid welfare fraud scandal
By Priscilla Alvarez, Zoe Sottile, CNN
(CNN) — The Trump administration is deploying around 2,000 federal agents to Minneapolis as part of an immigration crackdown on the heels of a welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota, according to two law enforcement officials.
Senior Trump officials have fixated on Minnesota and its Somali community after accusations of alleged fraud by members of the community. Last month, President Donald Trump called the community “garbage” and sent federal immigration authorities to the state.
The latest mobilization marks an escalation in the immigration enforcement push. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, as well as US Border Patrol agents are deploying to Minnesota. US Customs and Border Protection Commander Gregory Bovino, whose controversial tactics have come under increased scrutiny in multiple cities, is also expected to deploy to Minneapolis.
In response to questions about the deployment, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told CNN, “While for the safety of our officers we do not get into law enforcement footprint, DHS has surged law enforcement and has already made more than 1,000 arrests of murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and gang members.”
Federal agents have already been on the ground and the escalated presence in the city is already underway as authorities ramp up the administration’s crackdown.
Deployment follows fraud scandal
The deployment comes in the wake of a fraud scandal that has seen federal child care funding to Minnesota frozen and Gov. Tim Walz drop his reelection bid.
For years, investigators have been examining fraud of state funds in the state. In 2022, dozens of people – the vast majority of them Somali, although the leader was not – were charged after prosecutors say they falsely claimed to be providing meals to needy children during the Covid-19 pandemic through a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future. In all, 37 defendants have pleaded guilty, The Associated Press reported, but it’s unclear how many of them are Somali.
The scandal proved fodder for Trump’s targeted vitriol against Somalis, whom he has accused of “ripping off our country and ripping apart that once-great state” of Minnesota.
The day after Christmas, the controversy reignited with a viral video by 23-year-old conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley who claimed Somali-run child care centers were committing fraud using federal funds. His video, which received millions of views and was boosted by Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance, showed him attempting to enter child care centers in Minneapolis and claiming he wanted to enroll a child.
The video set off a firestorm – although it included little evidence for its claims, which have also been rebutted by the owners of several of the centers. State officials have since said investigators visited each of the centers featured in the video and found them all operating as expected.
But even those findings haven’t blunted the video’s explosive impact. Walz announced he would not seek reelection, citing in part “an organized group of political actors seeking to take advantage of the crisis.” Funding for child care in Minnesota is still frozen as state officials face a Friday deadline to give the federal government information about child care funding recipients.
In the days after the video went viral, DHS announced they were dispatching Homeland Security Investigations investigators to the state and posted videos of investigators visiting what they called “suspected fraud sites.”
Previous ICE operation targeted undocumented Somalis
This isn’t the first time federal immigration authorities have targeted the Twin Cities. In December, following Trump’s disparaging comments about Somalis and calls for them to leave the country, federal agents arrived in Minneapolis and St. Paul, part of the president’s wide-spanning deportation campaign.
The operation sparked fear and anxiety for the area’s Somali community, the vast majority of whom are US citizens. Americans of Somali descent told CNN they started carrying their passports and ID cards with them, scared they would be stopped by federal agents.
One masked federal agent tackled a 20-year-old American citizen of Somali descent and held him in a chokehold before detaining him in early December.
The previous ICE operation sparked protests and tense standoffs with agents. In one incident that drew criticism from the Minneapolis police chief, an agent knelt on a woman’s back as she lay atop a snow bank and then tried to drag her to a car. The episode took place just a few miles from where George Floyd was killed by a city police officer kneeling on his neck in 2020.
Bovino, a top Border Patrol official who sources say will arrive in Minneapolis, previously led targeted immigration enforcement operations in New Orleans, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Charlotte – all Democrat-led cities.
The exact number of undocumented immigrants in Minneapolis is unclear. The Twin Cities are home to the US’s largest diaspora from Somalia, a small Muslim-majority nation on the Horn of Africa that has been rent by decades of civil war and entrenched poverty. Nearly 58% of Somalis in Minnesota were born in the US, according to the US Census Bureau. Of the foreign-born Somalis in Minnesota, an overwhelming majority — 87% — are naturalized US citizens.
Trump has long railed against Somali community
The child care fraud scandal has reignited the president’s persistent hostility toward Somalis. For years, he has attacked Somalis living in the US, Somalia itself, and Somali leaders like Rep. Ilhan Omar, who he has said should not be allowed to serve in Congress.
He continued the attacks Sunday when asked about the Minnesota fraud scandal, insulting Omar and going on a tangent about Somali pirates, while criticizing “astronomical” theft of government funds.
Somalis and their advocates point out the small group of people charged with fraud don’t reflect their thousands-strong community.
Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Minnesota chapter, says there’s a clear motif when isolated instances of wrongdoing are used to scapegoat an entire population.
“The Somali community in the Twin Cities is overwhelmingly made up of hardworking families, small business owners, health care workers, students, and taxpayers who contribute every day to Minnesota’s economy and civic life,” he said.
“When an entire community is stigmatized, the impact is immediate: Families live in fear, businesses suffer, and trust in public institutions erodes.”
The-CNN-Wire
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