The Trump administration and House Republicans moved jointly Wednesday to crack down on allegations that Minnesota day cares run by Somali immigrants fraudulently pocketed millions in federal tax dollars for inactive and potentially non-existent facilities.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform announced it will hold a hearing next week on the alleged misuse of federal funds, with testimony from Minnesota state Republican lawmakers who have probed federal assistance fraud.
Embattled Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat who was his party’s nominee for vice president in 2024, and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison are slated to testify at a second hearing in February.
Separately, Vice President J.D. Vance warned that the Trump administration will take even more actions to stamp out the alleged fraud. His announcement came one day after the administration announced it will freeze all child care payments to the state.
One possible action under consideration is the denaturalization of Somali-Americans who were involved in the fraud schemes. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Department of Homeland Security is looking into revoking the Somalis’ citizenship.
“We’re also not afraid to use denaturalization,” Ms. Leavitt said on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday. “That’s a tool at the president and the secretary of state’s disposal. And it’s one this administration has previously used before.”
SEE ALSO: House GOP to hold hearings with Gov. Walz, Minnesota officials on social services fraud
The joint actions show the Republicans, including President Trump, have seized on the reports of fraud to ramp up pressure on Mr. Walz and other Democrats in his state, claw back misspent federal funds and raise concerns about Somali immigrants living in Minnesota.
In a Truth Social post, Mr. Trump placed the blame for the scandal squarely on Somali immigrants, saying they are responsible for as much as 90% of the fraud and should be sent back to their home country, which he called the “worst and perhaps most corrupt country on earth.”
Mr. Walz, who took office in 2019, is fighting for his political future as the pressure intensifies. He is facing calls to resign over the scandals, some of which date back several years and may have cost taxpayers billions of dollars, according to federal prosecutors.
As affordability is increasingly becoming a talking point for 2026 midterm elections, the high cost of child care is a persistent financial strain for many parents nationwide. If the allegations are true, it means hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted in Minnesota on essentially non-existent day care.
About three-quarters of U.S. adults see child care costs as a “major problem,” according to a June poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Mr. Walz fired back late Tuesday, accusing the Trump administration of politicizing the fraud issue to hurt low-income Minnesotans. He has acknowledged fraud is an issue, but has disputed the amount and insisted his office will get to the bottom of it.
“This is Trump’s long game,” Mr. Walz posted late Tuesday on X. “We’ve spent years cracking down on fraudsters. It’s a serious issue — but this has been his plan all along.”
“He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans,” he added.
Mr. Walz’s efforts to deflect the blame back onto Mr. Trump are unlikely to forestall House Republicans, who have opened a full investigation into the matter.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, Kentucky Republican, earlier this month asked Mr. Walz and Mr. Ellison to turn over documents and communications about the state’s programs and sought transcribed interviews with state officials. Whistleblowers have indicated that the state Department of Human Services employees are destroying evidence, Mr. Comer said.
“This misconduct cannot be swept aside and Congress will not stop until taxpayers get the answers and accountability they deserve,” he said.
Mr. Comer said Mr. Walz and Mr. Ellison have “either been asleep at the wheel or complicit in a massive fraud involving taxpayer dollars in Minnesota’s social services programs.”
After a slew of actions announced Tuesday to crack down on the widespread fraud, Mr. Vance said more actions are on the way. But he did not identify any specific measures.
“Turning off payments and forcing verification before taxpayer money flows out the door is one of the most important steps we can take to end the fraud in Minnesota. But there will be many more to come,” Mr. Vance wrote on X.
On Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it would freeze all federal child care payments to Minnesota and implement more stringent requirements for child care payments nationwide.
HHS also announced that before payments are distributed, it will require “justification and receipt or photo evidence” before money is sent, and launched a fraud-reporting hotline and email address.
The agency is demanding Mr. Walz submit an audit of these centers that includes attendance, records, licenses, complaints, investigations and inspections.
HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said the measures were necessary to stop “blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country.”
The Administration for Children and Families, an agency within HHS, provides $185 million in child care funds to Minnesota, according to its data.
Republicans were spurred to action by a viral video from conservative journalist Nick Shirley, who visited 10 Minnesota day care facilities funded by federal tax dollars and found them to be inactive or not caring for children. Several of them had been cited for safety violations by state investigators.
One of the day cares — The Quality Learning Center in South Minneapolis — had received a large amount of state funds but appeared inactive. It also had a sign that spelled “learning” as “learing.”
State and federal investigators have spent years probing 14 Minnesota-run safety net programs, including child nutrition, housing and autism assistance. Federal prosecutors earlier this month estimated that more than $9 billion in federal funds since 2018 had been stolen. That would account for nearly half of the federal funds doled out by taxpayers.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota has said that Somali Americans make up 82 of the 92 defendants in the fraud investigations.
“Much of the Minnesota fraud, up to 90%, is caused by people that came into our country, illegally from Somalia,” Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social. “Send them back to where they came, Somalia, perhaps the worst and most corrupt country on earth.”
In recent weeks, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have stepped up immigration and law enforcement operations in Minnesota.
Justice Department officials have been investigating fraud accusations involving members of Minnesota’s Somali community for years.
In 2022, federal prosecutors had announced initial indictments in what they said was a $250 million scheme to defraud a federally funded child nutrition program.
But some estimates have priced the fraud as high as $1 billion, while state investigations by state and federal officials remain ongoing.
Federal prosecutors have charged 77 people and alleged that Aimee Bock is the mastermind of the operation that defrauded the nutrition center.
She was convicted in March on four counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of bribery, and one count of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery.
