Free Republic

The fraud in Minnesota's welfare system is so astronomical that, after years of looking, they are still tallying up the damages. But the number runs upwards of $10 billion, and counting. To put that in perspective, that is the yearly GDP of Somalia, to pick a country at random. I would say "unbelievable," but this is Walz's Minnesota. US Attorney’s Office: ‘Half or more’ of $18B billed through state programs tied to fraud https://t.co/ZQhtLwcoCF— David Strom (@DavidStrom) December 18, 2025“The magnitude of fraud in Minnesota cannot be overstated." Gee, I wonder why. As the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced a new...

Ilhan Omar Cries To CNN About Trump. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) takes her complaints to CNN about President Trump and his comments about her and Somali constituents. (Pro-tip: She should only have AMERICAN constituents.)

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has joined the growing number of official voices urging Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to resign in the wake of massive welfare fraud in his state.Walz has been under fire in recent weeks following the uncovering of a billion dollar fraud scheme that funneled federal taxpayer funds to various groups including Somali immigrants with ties to al Shabaab, a Somali-based al Qaeda affiliate.McMahon sent Walz a scathing letter on Dec. 15, accusing the Minnesota governor of carelessness and lack of oversight that has “attracted fraudsters from around the world, especially from Somalia, to establish a...

Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons has rejected the viral claims made by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) alleging that ICE agents pulled over her son after he went to Target. Omar alleged in an interview that her son got pulled over by ICE agents, asserting that he was allowed to leave once he produced his passport. “He did get pulled over by ICE agents and once he was able to produce his passport ID they did let him go,” she claimed. […] Lyons said Omar has not produced proof this happened. “ICE has absolutely zero record of...

Mark Block uncovered unauthorized ActBlue donations made in his name. The alias “Bernie Kane” was used to spoof conservative donors. Smurfing breaks large donations into small ones to avoid detection. ActBlue does not require ID verification for small-dollar donors. Watchdogs warn these loopholes could distort real campaign momentum. In 2023, Republican strategist Mark Block was surprised to receive a phone call alleging he had donated to Bernie Sanders. He initially dismissed it as an error but then saw proof. Small-dollar donations had been processed through ActBlue using his name and address, despite the fact that he had never contributed.

United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents carrying out an operation in Minneapolis on Monday found themselves surrounded by anti-ICE rioters, according to video posted by local media. ICE is surging into the Minneapolis area to target illegal immigrants from Somalia after revelations surfaced suggesting around $1 billion in fraud, with the Treasury Department investigating whether some of the proceeds from the scheme went to the radical Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabaab. WCCO reporter Jonah Kaplan posted videos of the standoff on X Monday. “Dozens swarm @ICEgov agents operating in South Minneapolis,” Kaplan posted. “Officers now ordering people off the...

More than 400 illegal immigrants have been arrested in Minnesota by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of Operation Metro Surge, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement on Dec. 12.Federal agents move away protestors in front of Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Portland, Ore., on Oct. 4, 2025. John Fredricks/The Epoch TimesOperation Metro Surge targets the “worst of the worst” illegal immigrants who had flocked to Minnesota, assuming the state’s “sanctuary” politicians would protect them, DHS said.Sanctuary jurisdictions are places in the country where local or state officials refuse to enforce federal immigration laws...

… Among other requirements, Minneapolis' separation ordinance forbids Minneapolis police from taking part in immigration enforcement or assisting ICE agents. It also prevents city employees from investigating an individual when the only law they've violated is being in the United States illegally. City employees are also restricted from inquiring about immigration status except when required to do so by law. This week, the council presented a revised version of the separation ordinance with tougher language intended to combat ICE, amid a targeted immigration operation ordered by President Trump focused on the Somali community. The new ordinance declares the city will...

More than 8-in-10 households headed by Somali refugees in the state of Minnesota are on one or more forms of American taxpayer-funded welfare, new data published by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) reveals. The data, based on 10 years of data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), shows drastic disparities between native-born American households and Somali-born households in Minnesota, where nearly 80,000 residents have Somali ancestry compared to zero who had Somali ancestry in 1990. In particular, the data shows that 81 percent of Minnesota households headed by Somali refugees are on one or more forms of...

A Minnesota prisoner freed early from prison by Governor Tim Walz under a controversial new scheme is being hunted by police. Convicted drug dealer Vance Marie Nin, 23, who has an image of a cannabis leaf tattooed to her face, was released from prison in Shakopee in September despite having a previous assault conviction. Nin had served only 16 months of a 48-month sentence for second-degree drug sales, but was freed by the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) after she met the requirements for early release under a Minnesota Rehabilitation and Reinvestment Act (MRRA) pilot program. MRRA, signed into law...

On Saturday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided a home in Burnsville and detained four people, according to family members at the house.... Angel Alvarado, Sofia's brother, said ICE agents took his sister, mom, daughter and niece into the kitchen... He said all four are U.S. citizens and were able to show their paperwork to ICE eventually.... Sofia said it all started when the couple renting on the lower level was headed home from the grocery store... She said the family is here illegally from Honduras for work and that ICE told her to voluntarily self-deport. A translator said,...

Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar appeared to suggest Sunday on CBS News that the victims of a massive COVID relief fraud scheme in the state — in which nine-in-ten of those charged were Somali — were other Somali. During an appearance on “Face the Nation,” Omar told host Margaret Brennan it is “frustrating” to her that people do not acknowledge Minnesota’s Somali community is “upset” about the COVID relief fraud — which reportedly resulted in taxpayer money winding up in the hands of a Somali radical Islamic terrorist group. The scheme’s alleged perpetrators “stole nearly $1 billion” from a nonprofit...

Ilhan Omar Strikes Again. Ilhan Omar Sparks Firestorm After Comparing Stephen Miller’s Rhetoric to Nazi-Era Language | WATCH. Ilhan Omar ignited fresh controversy by comparing Trump aide Stephen Miller’s immigration rhetoric to language once used by Nazi Germany, sparking fierce backlash online and renewed debate over political discourse, antisemitism, and U.S. immigration policy. Bianca Jones.

Earlier this month, over 400 Minnesota Department of Human Services employees accused Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz of being "100% responsible" for the massive fraud in Minnesota. I wrote at the time that the Minnesota Somali fraud scandal could take down Walz, and every day it looks even more likely. And what do you know, the scandal just got significantly worse for Walz and Rep. Ilhan Omar. Newly surfaced photographs show both Democrats smiling alongside Abdul Dahir Ibrahim, a Somali national and convicted fraudster who spent decades in America as an illegal immigrant before Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently arrested him....

The numbers out of Minnesota are staggering: Three separate plots to bilk welfare programs. Fifty-nine federal convictions. More than $1 billion stolen from taxpayers. Of 86 people charged so far, all but eight are of Somali descent. The scandal has seized headlines and put Gov. Tim Walz, seeking a third term, on the defensive. It’s huge, brazen and entangled with the seamy politics of migration and assimilation. President Trump has weighed in with characteristic subtlety: “We don’t want them in our country,” he said of Somali-born Rep. Ilhan Omar and “her friends” during Tuesday’s cabinet meeting. “Let them go back...

Federal prosecutors on Thursday charged a Minneapolis man in connection with a string of sexual assaults including of a 15-year-old girl. In two of the cases, Abdimahat Bille Mohamed, 28, avoided prison as part of a recent plea deal with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and allegedly raped his latest victim in September while on probation. In a statement, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi blamed Minnesota’s “left-wing soft-on-crime policies” for putting innocent people at risk from a “Somali national.” In response, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said the Justice Department news release is a “clear attempt to politicize a sexual...

In July 2019, Minnesota state officials spotted early signs of fraud that would eventually siphon away more than $1 billion in taxpayer money, but they quickly faced pressure from leaders of the charitable group Feeding Our Future to stop asking questions, according to multiple former employees at the Minnesota Department of Education.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Thursday that individuals have driven past his residence and shouted insults at him after President Donald Trump used the same term in a recent Truth Social post. Walz made the remarks during a budget meeting while discussing concerns about the reaction to the November comments. Trump wrote on Nov. 27 that Walz was “seriously retarded” for failing to stop alleged Somali crime in Minnesota after a welfare fraud scandal surfaced. Walz told attendees at the meeting that he had not seen Republicans condemn the language used by the president. “I’d never seen this before. People...

When 200 federal agents raided dozens of Minnesota homes and businesses on Jan. 20, 2022, policy analyst Bill Glahn took notice. So did a lot of other people—at first.Aimee Bock (C), founder and executive director of the nonprofit organization Feeding Our Future, arrives at the Minneapolis federal courthouse with her attorney, Ken Udoibok (R) in Minneapolis on March 19, 2025. Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via APAn initial blast of news coverage trumpeted an emerging multimillion-dollar welfare-fraud scandal. Then “it just vanished from the radar” of most media outlets and public consciousness, Glahn told The Epoch Times. “The stories just dried...

The ongoing federal immigration operations in Minnesota targeting Somali immigrants living in the country illegally have created fear and unease for many in the Twin Cities. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara joined 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS on Wednesday night and reiterated that police don’t participate in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. Because of that, O’Hara didn’t confirm any ICE operations, something ABC News confirmed through multiple sources on Wednesday. However, O’Hara did note that the city’s 911 dispatchers have received “a dramatic increase” in calls reporting apparent ICE activities. The chief says he’s already noticed more businesses closed and...