Like many Americans, I’m taken aback by the recent revelations concerning the Somali communities in Minneapolis. That city has become a haven for Somali immigrants from a war-torn and corrupt nation in Africa. You can understand in part why people have fled that continent by reviewing Somalia’s history. It’s ripped asunder by wars, insurrection, and poverty.
In the past, America has welcomed people from lands like these. Immigrants saw America as a place where they could live in peace, raise their families, and achieve freedom and prosperity. But that is not what is happening in Minneapolis. It is now famous not as a city of opportunity but as a hotbed of rampant corruption.
There, Somali immigrants have engaged in an astonishing conspiracy that has syphoned billions of dollars from state and federal funding. That includes funds for Medicaid, child hunger, housing for the poor, and childcare facilities. The money was then laundered to purchase extravagant cars and houses for the criminal conspirators, while also funneling cash back to Somalia for nefarious reasons, some involving support of terror organizations. To a considerable extent, Somalia depends on remittances from Somalis living in more economically advanced countries. As such, Minneapolis has become a cash cow for corruption.
The deceit is as evident as the nose on one’s face. Yet the Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, has done virtually nothing to rein in the fraud. That was made clear in the video by online conservative influencer Nick Shirley, who visited multiple day care centers in Minnesota. What he found were abandoned daycare facilities licensed to serve dozens of children and to receive public funds. At one largely inactive childcare facility the building displayed a misspelled sign reading “Quality Learing Center,” a leering mistake. It had no children there despite claiming to serve 99 kids for which it received $4 million in government funding.
Remarkably, Minnesota officials claim that “no-notice” compliance inspections have been conducted over the past six months as part of the state’s licensing process. This oversight is very suspect. Some children were present during those visits, but none of the prior reviews uncovered any fraud. If that’s true, then there is every evidence that the inspections are insufficient, if not totally compromised by internal corruption and kickbacks.
Consider the facts. Ongoing investigations by the US Attorney have resulted in 78 indictments and 57 convictions, with prosecutors also charging defendants in a separate plot to bribe a juror with $120,000 in cash. The FBI is now investigating this further. There’s more.
As federal authorities investigate reports of massive fraud in Minnesota, an unearthed 2018 video reveals the scam in progress. In it, parents are shown checking their children into a daycare center in Hennepin County, Minnesota, only to leave minutes later with their kids. The scheme involves low-income parents signing their children up for daycare services so that providers can subsequently claim reimbursement for services that were never rendered. In some cases, no families showed up, yet the daycare fraudsters still claimed government reimbursements.
It is tempting to blame this on “corrupt Somali immigrants” and, in the process, miss the key point. What has been revealed in this case is waste, fraud, and abuse at an industrial level. It may be larger than anyone realizes. This Minnesota corruption is not isolated.
The seeds of fraud have been planted over decades of profligate federal and state government spending on social welfare programs, with few serious guardrails to detect criminal activity, indeed, public theft. We also learned this week from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development that billions in taxpayer funds from a Biden-era rental assistance program went to 30,000 deceased tenants and thousands of non-citizens.
This must stop, but it won’t until our nation returns to its commonsense roots. America was founded on the idea that freedom and opportunity are the rootstock of prosperity, not government handouts through wealth redistribution. Wealth confiscation and distribution do not reward hard work, honest industry, and risk-taking entrepreneurship.
Our nation has allowed corruption in Minnesota and elsewhere through abjectly poor governance that has swelled our national debt and undermined the free-enterprise system that incubates the American dream. A nightmare of decadence and crime has resulted.
If ever there was a time to address profligate federal spending on social programs, it is now. If Minnesota wants to shower welfare spending on whatever group it desires, let them use their own state taxes, not those from the rest of us. Some people may think, “Well, if it’s federal money, who cares?” They’re wrong. Massive federal handout programs are ripe for theft.
Indeed, if the definition of inflation is “too much money chasing too few goods,” then the definition of public fraud is “too much money enticing too many criminals.” This New Year must bring accountability.
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