Federal agents executed multiple searches in Minnesota on Tuesday, seizing records and other evidence in an ongoing fraud investigation by the Trump administration of publicly funded social programs for children, authorities said. Armed agents were seen at childcare centers in the Minneapolis area, and KSTP-TV said one crew even had a battering ram. The sweep landed on daycares, businesses and some residences, with state and federal agencies joining in the operation and boxes being removed from some locations by officers from Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Who Gets Hit First
The searches were carried out in Minneapolis and elsewhere in Minnesota, and at least two of the sites were in a video posted by right-wing influencer Nick Shirley. His video claimed members of Minnesota’s Somali community were running fake childcare centers to collect federal subsidies. That clip caught the attention of the Trump administration and conservative activists, though inspectors said the centers were operating as expected. The investigation itself began during the Biden administration, another reminder that the machinery of surveillance and enforcement keeps humming no matter which party is selling the show.
Minnesota has been dogged by fraud, according to the article’s own record of the state’s public programs. At least 65 people, many of them Somali Americans, have been convicted of ripping off a federal program that was meant to provide food to children. Separately, a federal prosecutor in December said as much as $9 billion in federal funds that supported 14 Minnesota-run programs since 2018 may have been stolen. Those figures now sit beside a new round of raids, with ordinary workers and community institutions absorbing the force of a state response built around suspicion, seizure and spectacle.
What the Apparatus Says It’s Doing
A person familiar with the matter, speaking to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation, said the searches were being conducted at daycares, businesses and some residences. Various state and federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, participated in the searches. The same apparatus that claims to protect the public was once again moving through neighborhoods with armed agents and boxes, treating childcare sites like crime scenes before the public had any real accounting of what was found.
DHS said, “The American people deserve to know how their taxpayer money was abused. ... No stone will be left unturned,” and noted the cooperation of local and state authorities. On social media, FBI Director Kash Patel mocked Democratic Gov. Tim Walz for taking credit “while we smoke out the fraud plaguing Minnesota under your governorship.” The language is pure theater: one branch of the state congratulating itself while another performs outrage, all while the people at the bottom are left to deal with the fallout.
Jason Steck, an attorney who represents childcare centers, said some of the targeted businesses were operated by Somali immigrants. He said they were not his clients. Steck described the sweep as “A few childcare centers, a few autism centers, a few healthcare agencies of some type,” and said it appeared to be a “particular sweep for fraud.” The targets were not abstract numbers; they were childcare centers, autism centers and healthcare agencies, the kinds of places where communities try to patch together care in a system that routinely fails to provide it.
Politics, Punishment and the Price Below
Candace Yates, the executive director of Child Care Aware of Minnesota, said, “The majority are in business to do good business. You’re going to come across individuals who try to capitalize on systems that are broken and need to be fixed.” Her words point straight at the broken architecture underneath the raids: systems that invite abuse, then punish the people caught inside them when the fraud becomes politically useful.
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said, “We catch criminals when state and federal agencies share information. Joint investigations work, and securing justice depends on it.” Walz had ended his bid for a third term as governor in early January amid President Donald Trump’s focus on fraud allegations and the state’s Somali community. Trump has used dehumanizing rhetoric, calling Somali immigrants “garbage” and “low IQ.” The political class keeps trading accusations while the same communities remain under the microscope.
Tensions between Walz and the federal government subsequently rocketed during an extraordinary immigration crackdown that led to the deaths of two people before Operation Metro Surge was eased in February. In February, Vice President JD Vance said the government would temporarily halt $243 million in Medicaid funding to Minnesota over fraud concerns. Minnesota sued in response, warning it may have to cut healthcare for low-income families, but a judge on April 6 declined to grant a restraining order. Walz told Congress in March that he wanted to work with the federal government in fraud investigations, but that the immigration surge had made it more difficult. He said, “The people of Minnesota have been singled out and targeted for political retribution at an unparalleled scale.”