DHS, FBI Surge Agents to Minnesota in Wake Of Massive Fraud Reports

A recent increase in the number of federal law enforcement officers operating in Minnesota follows new allegations of fraud involving day care centers run by Somali residents, according to officials familiar with the investigations.

President Donald Trump has previously connected his administration’s stepped-up immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota to a series of fraud cases tied to government assistance programs, many of which have involved defendants with roots in Somalia, ABC7 reports.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel announced this week that federal operations in Minnesota would be expanded.

The announcements followed the release of a video Friday by independent journalist Nick Shirley, who alleged 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 a news conference Monday that state regulators were taking the allegations seriously, ABC7 said.

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

Minnesota has faced heightened scrutiny for years over Medicaid fraud, including the roughly $300 million pandemic-era case involving the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. Prosecutors have described it as the largest COVID-19–related fraud scheme in the United States, alleging that defendants exploited a state-administered, federally funded program intended to provide meals for children.

The investigation began during the administration of Joe Biden. In 2022, federal prosecutors charged 47 individuals, a figure that has since grown to 78 as the case has expanded.

To date, 57 defendants have been convicted, either through guilty pleas or trial verdicts. Court records show that most of those charged are of Somali descent, noted ABC7.

Authorities say several additional fraud investigations remain ongoing, including new allegations centered on child care centers.

In interviews and press releases over the summer, federal prosecutor Joe Thompson estimated that total losses across multiple fraud cases in Minnesota could exceed $1 billion. Earlier this month, another federal prosecutor alleged that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funding provided to 14 programs in the state since 2018 may have been misappropriated.

Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota have largely focused on the Somali community in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area, which is the largest such community in the United States. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota, 85 of the 98 defendants charged in cases involving alleged fraud tied to child nutrition, housing assistance, and autism programs are Somali Americans.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi made the arrest announcement on Monday. Bondi said additional prosecutions are expected as the investigations continue.

Her announcement followed the release of a series of videos by Shirley. “[Nick Shirley’s] work has helped show Americans the scale of fraud in Tim Walz’s Minnesota,” Bondi said in an X statement late Monday.

“@TheJusticeDepartment has been investigating this for months. So far, we have charged 98 individuals — 85 of Somali descent — and more than 60 have been found guilty in court,” she continued. “We have more prosecutions coming… BUCKLE UP, LAWMAKERS!”

Bondi went on to describe several of the cases they’d already prosecuted, including the Feeding Our Future scheme and a connected juror bribery case — a situation which, as Bondi noted, was “not unlike what you would see in the corrupt Somali judicial system.”

In September, a media release from the Department of Justice alleged that 28-year-old Asha Farhan Hassan received nearly $500,000 for her involvement in a $14 million autism fraud case.

“From November 2019 through December 2024, Asha Hassan and others devised and carried out a scheme to defraud the EIDBI autism services program. Hassan formed and registered Smart Therapy LLC with the Minnesota Secretary of State in November 2019. Hassan listed herself as the sole owner of Smart Therapy,” said the release.

“Shortly after forming the company, Hassan enrolled Smart Therapy as a provider agency in the EIDBI program. …Hassan also enrolled Smart Therapy in the Federal Child Nutrition Program under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future,” it added.

With Only $7 and a Hungry Baby, Madison Blake Faced the One Thing She Feared Most

Certain days pass without any visible markers of significance, blending seamlessly into the exhausting rhythm of ordinary life, only later revealing themselves as the precise moments when everything quietly began to change in ways no one could have predicted.

For Madison Blake, that understanding took root just after sunrise, on a morning that initially felt indistinguishable from countless others defined by fatigue, anxiety, and the quiet resilience demanded by circumstances that rarely offered mercy.

She sat behind the wheel of her aging sedan, fingers wrapped tightly around the worn steering wheel, while her baby’s cries reverberated through the cramped interior of the vehicle with an intensity that made concentration nearly impossible.

These were not gentle sounds of passing discomfort, nor the restless whimpers of minor inconvenience, but sharp, desperate wails that carried a message Madison had learned to recognize with painful clarity through months of sleepless nights and constant vigilance.

Madison had developed the ability to distinguish between cries the way others developed professional instincts, because parenthood under financial strain required an almost surgical awareness of need, urgency, and emotional endurance.

This cry meant hunger.

Ivy, barely eight months old, expressed necessity with the full force of instinct untempered by patience or understanding, because hunger, for an infant, existed as immediate crisis rather than manageable delay.

Madison’s entire body throbbed with exhaustion accumulated over too many restless nights, her shoulders tense, her thoughts dulled by fatigue, while the oversized dark hoodie she wore offered little comfort against the cold creeping through the vehicle.

When Madison reached into the diaper bag beside her seat, clinging to the fragile hope that exhaustion had distorted her memory, hoping she might discover a forgotten bottle or a final scoop of formula overlooked in her sleep deprived haze, her fingers encountered only emptiness.

There was nothing waiting inside.

No formula remained within the container she had shaken repeatedly hours earlier, no hidden backup bottle tucked away by miracle, no overlooked solution quietly waiting to rescue the moment.

Her throat tightened as reality settled into place with unforgiving weight, because denial could no longer coexist with the unmistakable urgency of a hungry child whose needs ignored financial timelines entirely.

She glanced toward the dashboard clock glowing faintly beneath the cracked windshield, silently registering the time while her mind scrambled through possibilities that stubbornly refused to materialize.

9:42 a.m.

Her paycheck would arrive tomorrow morning. Tomorrow held no value. Ivy needed food now.

The fuel light blinked steadily, its amber glow acting as a relentless reminder of yet another approaching problem Madison lacked the resources to resolve, while her bank account contained precisely seven dollars.

Still, Madison clung stubbornly to a single narrowing thread of hope, convincing herself that one small solution remained achievable, one manageable victory capable of postponing the avalanche of larger concerns waiting patiently beyond it.

Just formula.

Everything else could wait. She guided the sedan into the cracked parking lot of a modest roadside gas station near the limits of Silver Ridge, the tired building appearing sun faded beneath the pale winter sky, its flickering OPEN sign buzzing faintly as though uncertain of its own endurance.

The lot stretched mostly empty in the cold morning light, its fractured pavement marked by faded oil stains and forgotten debris, yet three motorcycles stood near the far edge like silent, imposing silhouettes.

They were impossible to ignore.

Large machines built from polished steel and quiet menace, their heavy frames radiating presence even at rest, while three men wearing black leather vests stood nearby engaged in low conversation.

Madison felt unease crawl slowly along her spine, because she did not recognize these men personally, yet their vests communicated a reputation widely understood within towns like Silver Ridge.

She considered leaving immediately, instinct urging retreat, caution whispering that fear often carried practical wisdom born from experience rather than prejudice.

She could not leave. Ivy’s cries erased hesitation.

Madison lifted her daughter carefully from the back seat, whispering soft reassurances into the baby’s hair despite uncertainty clouding every promise she offered, while Ivy’s tiny fists clenched with furious urgency.

Inside the store, fluorescent lights hummed overhead, illuminating narrow aisles lined with cheap snacks and neglected merchandise, while Madison moved quickly toward the baby supplies section with a pulse that refused to slow.

She located the formula without difficulty, grasping the familiar container tightly, deliberately avoiding the price label as though ignorance might somehow soften reality’s impact.

At the counter, the teenage cashier scanned the item with mechanical indifference, the register emitting a sharp electronic beep that seemed disproportionately loud within Madison’s heightened awareness.

“Twenty three sixty,” he announced flatly.