Fraudsters go home, President Donald Trump said Friday, signaling that he will send Somali refugees in Minnesota packing.
“Minnesota, under Governor Waltz, is a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity. I am, as President of the United States, hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing. Send them back to where they came from. It’s OVER! President DJT,” he posted.
The TPS program was created to allow people from nations in turmoil to legally live in the U.S.
According to CBS, there are currently 705 Somalis who are part of the program. Minnesota has America’s largest concentration of Somalis.
Minnesota Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth praised Trump for recognizing the “seriousness of the fraud problem” in the state.
We broke the Somali fraud story and called on President Trump to revoke the Temporary Protected Status for all Somalis. Now, the President has delivered.
This is how we win. ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/B17KNwhHD2
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@christopherrufo) November 22, 2025
“The unfortunate reality is that far too many individuals who were welcomed into this country have abused the trust and support that was extended to them, and Minnesota taxpayers have suffered billions of dollars in consequences as a result,” Demuth said.
Allegations of massive fraud were leveled in a report by the City Journal, which alleged, “Billions in taxpayer dollars have been stolen during the administration of Governor Tim Walz alone. Democratic state officials, overseeing one of the most generous welfare regimes in the country, are asleep at the switch.”
“In many cases, the fraud has allegedly been perpetrated by members of Minnesota’s sizeable Somali community. Federal counterterrorism sources confirm that millions of dollars in stolen funds have been sent back to Somalia, where they ultimately landed in the hands of the terror group Al-Shabaab,” the report said.
“The largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer,” the report quoted one of its sources as saying.
The report noted that Minnesota’s Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program, which was projected to have an annual cost of $2.6 million and ran up a $61 million tab for the first six months of this year, is among the programs riddled with fraud.
In September, eight people were indicted on charges related to fraud in the program, and six were part of the Somali community.
The report noted that 56 people have pleaded guilty in a $250 million fraud scheme with an agency called Feeding Our Future, which has forged connections with Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a Somali, and her office.
Further, allegations have been made about a $14 million autism scam involving Minnesota’s Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention program.
In the scam, parents enrolled children to receive autism services, getting a kickback in the process, while scammers billed the state for autism services that were not necessary.
The report noted that “one in 16 Somali four-year-olds in the state had reportedly been diagnosed with autism — a rate more than triple the state average.”
Timeline of Somali Immigration and Fraud in Minnesota
1991: Somali Civil War erupts after Siad Barre’s fall, displacing over 1 million.
U.S. begins admitting Somalis under humanitarian refugee policies, facilitated by NGO’s.1992–1993: First wave of ~5,000 Somali refugees… pic.twitter.com/j6zFpQoHIz
— PigWar (@PigWar) November 21, 2025
“This is not an isolated scheme,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said in a September news release. “From Feeding Our Future to Housing Stabilization Services and now Autism Services, these massive fraud schemes form a web that has stolen billions of dollars in taxpayer money. Each case we bring exposes another strand of this network.”
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