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The federal-benefits fraud in Minnesota is so big, it’s now a national story. Even left-leaning national media are covering it, though it undermines a narrative they’re desperate to believe.
The situation reveals some uncomfortable truths about indiscriminate mass migration. One is the hidden fiscal cost of absorbing millions of refugees and other low-skilled immigrants and allowing them full access to a welfare state which neither their parents nor they themselves will end up paying for.
Minnesota offers a generous range of public benefits for those who need them. Historically, the state had a reputation for low crime and high civic responsibility.
Enter thousands of Somalis who came to the U.S. over the past 30 years. Most were brought through the U.S. Refugee Assistance Program, asylum applications or related family chain migration. Many were settled in Minnesota through the Lutheran church’s refugee resettlement charity. The result was a sudden meeting of high-trust and low-trust societies.
Somali illegal alien Abdul Dahir Ibrahim, who was convicted of fraud, has been photographed with Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., (left) and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (right). (ICE)
Somalia is the second-most corrupt country on Earth, according to the Corruption Perceptions Index, with little central government or law enforcement. It’s the ultimate "low-trust" society. That means people might trust their family, and maybe their clan, but by the time we get to the state, there’s no credit left. If there is an opportunity to fleece authorities, or foreign donors, it’s almost a civic duty to do so.
Surely, some Somali immigrants realize that their home system has led to poverty, crime, and war and want to adopt America’s more successful ways. But others remain stuck in the old customs. In COVID-19-era, Black Lives Matter-addled Minneapolis, the grifter element stumbled on a gold mine of ill-guarded public money and took advantage.
There was the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme, where dozens of people — mostly ethnic Somalis — allegedly stole more than $250 million between 2020 and 2022 by setting up a bogus child nutrition program. Some of those arrested participated in public events, donated money, or otherwise interacted with Minnesota politicians, including Minnesota Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar; Democrat Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey; Omar Fateh, who tried and failed to oust Frey in the Democratic primary for mayor; and Democrat Gov. Tim Walz. The crooks fended off the initial suspicions of state authorities by playing the race card, which works on white Democrats like a cross on a vampire.
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Then there was Housing Stabilization Services (HSS), which Minnesota created in 2020 to house seniors, addicts, the disabled and the mentally ill. The state created HSS under their version of Medicaid, the idea being that having a house makes them healthier. Kind of a stretch, but at a paltry couple-million-dollar budget, what could go wrong?
The program was easy to get into and relied on people’s honesty. The state estimated it would cost under $3 million a year, but it cost 10 times that in 2021, doubled again in 2022, and by 2024 the bill for HSS was $100 million. Costs were still climbing when the state cut the program in 2025.
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Costs were still climbing when the state cut the program in 2025.
You could shake your head and say, well, those "Minnesota nice" suckers got their clocks cleaned — bummer for them. But it sucks for you too, because the federal government kicks in at least half of every dollar Minnesota spends on a Medicaid program.
Another state-run program, Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention, was easy game. Asha Farhan Hassan was the first person charged in a huge scam where parents declared their kids autistic, and scammers created bogus entities and programs to provide them services, while paying kickbacks to the parents. State payments for autism claims exploded from $1 million in 2017 to more than $240 million in 2024.
In brief, seeing bountiful benefit cash with hardly any oversight, some unscrupulous Somalis, Somali-Americans, and their local accomplices took advantage. It was easy to co-opt other ethnic Somalis, as even if they thought ripping off the government was wrong, they wouldn’t rat out kin to "the Man."
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I’ve seen this attitude to personal corruption in my career from South Asia to West Africa to the South Pacific. It is endemic to — and a cause of — poverty-stricken, badly-governed countries.
In the classic movie "Casablanca," Claude Raines’ character says, "I’m shocked, shocked!" to discover that gambling was going on in Rick’s Café. The joke, of course, is he’s not — because he’s the police chief in a French colonial city where corruption is endemic.
Anyone who’s ever spent time in a "developing" country is not at all surprised to see that corruption does not magically disappear from a culture once their feet hit U.S. soil.
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The Somali-centered benefit fraud scam reveals a truth that the left refuses to admit, even to themselves: not all immigrants come with the same baggage. Arrival in America doesn’t magically erase generations of immiserating forms of culture and tradition.
People of all kinds, from all places, can eventually assimilate. But for this to happen requires effort, time, and good example. A neighborhood made up of one ethnic group and not exposed to the surrounding mores — like "little Mogadishu," Minneapolis — will change very slowly.
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Even leaving crime and fraud aside, mass migration isn’t free. Even if all immigrants were hard-working and honest, some immigrant groups do better than others, on average. That means that the lifetime average cost of some groups of immigrants, particularly refugees from extremely poor and dysfunctional societies, is going to be a net fiscal negative.
A few hundred Somalis just cashed out early — and the rest of us were left holding the bag.
