WA Somali-run daycare took $210,000 in taxpayer funds in 2025 but no childcare business appears to exist: report

The Post Millennial ^ | December 30, 2025 | Hannah Nightingale

[Morgana]

A new investigative report has uncovered daycare fraud undertaken by Somalis in Washington State. A resident living at a home registered as a daycare center in the state told reporters, when confronted that there has never been such a business there.

Video showed journalist Cam Higby sending a decoy up to the home that is listed as housing the business "Dhagash Childcare," with Higby saying that his decoy heard "rustling around on the other side of the Ring camera, as if they were listening to her but not responding."

Journalist Jonathan Choe said he also went to the house with Kristen Mag immediately following Higby "to see if we get the same response, and we sort of did." Choe was able to speak to a person who was inside the home through the doorbell, asking, "is this Dhagash Family Childcare." The woman on the other side replied, "no." He asked what the name of the childcare business was there, and the woman replied, "I don’t have childcare." He recounted asking if the location had ever been a childcare place, and the woman said "no."

Washington State records show that the address is listed as a daycare, and the Google page for the business lists it as a daycare. In 2025 alone, the business has received over $210,000 in taxpayer funds.

The business is licensed to hold up to nine children, however, six slots were open, Higby said. He added that a woman came up to them and said the people who live in the house, who are the woman’s neighbor, had texted and asked her to go over and confront the reporters "because they thought we were ICE. So the next question, are they illegal immigrants?"

Higby continued, "by what she said is, I’ve seen no evidence that there is a daycare there. She actually said my husband and I were wondering how those people afford that house, because she said the rent was $3,500 a month." The neighbor said, "I haven’t seen kids over there. I mean, I’ve seen one child over there like when they have family things but no, I have not seen any evidence of daycare activity there."

Higby said that authorities had come and inspected the location in September and found "multiple long-term, short-term, serious, and immediate risks to children," and that in the same month, they received $22,000.

Choe emphasized, "we’re not alleging that every single one of these Somali-run daycares are engaged in fraudulent activity," with Higby adding, "I mean, we went to some today that seem totally legitimate." Choe continued, And the vast majority may be legit, but the ones that we’ve investigated and the list that we still have that needs to be investigated, there are concerning signs.

This comes after reports of fraud in Washington State similar to those found in Minnesota, with dozens of people being convicted. Investigative reporter for the Center Square, Carleen Johnson, posted to social media on Monday, “Just went to four Somali run home daycare centers in Federal Way, WA that receive taxpayer subsidies. Just like Nick Shirley found in MN, there were no children and no one willing to chat with this reporter. They threatened me with police.”

“I didn't ask to come inside. There were no children present. This did not at all appear to be a legit child care center receiving WA taxpayer subsidies.” She added, “Funny thing is, I was standing on the street in front of the home at the time she screamed at me from an upstairs window. I have no doubt WA taxpayers have been bilked of millions by this scam.”

Kristen Mag noted that there are 539 childcare centers in Washington state that list Somali as the primary language, and "most don’t even give a street address. I don’t know how many of these are submitting fraudulent claims for state grants and subsidies, but I have a strong hunch the number is not zero."

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TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS:

[Morgana]

Raise the flag of piracy, sing the song of victory

Glorious in battle are we

We've never known defeat, we never will retreat.

We live to hear the cannon roar,

And terror is our sempahore

Victoriously loathsome are we,

We rob the rich, the poor; then steal a little more.

[crusty old prospector]

I am beginning to wonder if I am the only individual who does not have his own government-funded daycare.

[llevrok]

No kids inside because they were all home with their families celebrating Kwanza? llevrok diving for cover.....

[GOPJ]

And that’s just one daycare out of hundreds own by Somalis...

[GOPJ]

” There are 539 childcare centers in Washington state that list Somali as the primary language. Most don’t even give a street address.

FIRST SIGNS OF MASSIVE POTENTIAL SOMALI FRAUD IN COLUMBUS, OHIO

The first Somali-affiliated daycare facility that we knocked after landing in Columbus, Ohio today did not answer. A neighbor across the street told us, “I’ve never seen nobody come out the building or go in the… pic.twitter.com/zywy9lPDMw— Muckraker.com (@realmuckraker) December 30, 2025

From link at: https://freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/4359583/posts?page=19#19

[FlingWingFlyer]

Thieving primitive, subhuman bass turds. Come to whiteyland rip them off.

[bwest]

$210,000? Pikers!

[FlingWingFlyer]

These bass turds came up with the “It Takes A Village BS”. NOT THE TAXPAYER DOLLARS OF WHITE AMERICANS. The Sammies need to care for their own spawn and pay for it themselves. The ahos came here for asylum, not for day care for their offspring. The village in Samolia does that crap.

[ETCM]

The Somalis are the tip of the iceberg. They are just more greedy than the people doing it quietly throughout the country. Other nationalities are more discreet. “You get paid to watch my kids and I’ll get paid to watch yours“ to the tune of $40k or $50k a year. The whole scam needs to be brought down.

[henbane]

". . . there are 539 childcare centers in Washington state that list Somali as the primary language, and "most don’t even give a street address."

How many states will end up involved in this tax-payer-funded Democrat-driven Somali scam?

With the media's continuous exposures of fraudsters state-by-state, this unfolding criminal network may end up in the lap of Attorney-General Pam Bondi as a mammoth RICO case.

[No name given]

Big time.

[Political Junkie Too]

there are 539 childcare centers in Washington state that list Somali as the primary language

Has anybody even asked the basic question of whether the market can support that many children in day care at all?

I'm not even talking about whether 539 Somali day care centers X 50 children per center = 26,590 Somali children in Washington state is even a real thing!

-PJ

[justrepublican]

17,000 somali’s in washington state

[Political Junkie Too]

Yup. And the numbers are even higher in Minneapolis, and yet, nobody, even Shirley, has asked that basic question: Why is the Somali day care center market so over-saturated that the population could never support so many day care centers in the first place?

There just aren't enough children to fill up all of these day care centers, yet nobody bothered to do the basic arithmetic.

-PJ

[The Great RJ]

These Somalis are amateurs in comparison to their kin in Minnesota where single phony day care facilities got millions.