Trump Terminates Protected Status for Somali Migrants Amid Massive Minnesota Welfare Fraud Investigation

President Donald Trump announced Friday night the immediate termination of Temporary Protected Status for Somali migrants in Minnesota, citing connections to what investigators describe as a massive, multi-billion dollar welfare fraud operation. The facts here are staggering, and they demand serious attention.

“Minnesota, under Governor Walz, is a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity,” Trump stated. “I am, as President of the United States, hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota. Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing. Send them back to where they came from. It’s OVER!”

Let’s examine the evidence that prompted this decision, because the scope of this fraud is genuinely breathtaking.

During Governor Tim Walz’s tenure, federal investigators have uncovered a sprawling network of welfare fraud that has drained billions from Minnesota taxpayers. The money, according to law enforcement sources, has been funneled through fake nonprofits and shell companies. Most alarmingly, some of these stolen funds have reportedly ended up financing Al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist organization operating in Somalia.

One law enforcement source put it bluntly: “The largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer.” That statement should shock every American. We are not talking about minor administrative errors or isolated incidents of fraud. This is systematic, organized theft on a massive scale that is funding international terrorism.

The fraud has centered primarily within Minnesota’s Somali community, where politically connected operators have allegedly exploited multiple loopholes in the state’s welfare system. The Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program provides a perfect case study. Designed to help seniors, addicts, and the disabled secure housing, the program’s payments exploded from $2.6 million to more than $104 million in just a few years. Operators ran companies out of dilapidated storefronts, billing for services they never provided.

U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson, a career fraud prosecutor, described the situation in stark terms: “What we see are schemes stacked upon schemes, draining resources meant for those in need. It feels never-ending. I have spent my career as a fraud prosecutor and the depth of the fraud in Minnesota takes my breath away.”

The fraud extends beyond housing services. Minnesota’s Medicaid autism programs saw spending skyrocket from $3 million in 2018 to $399 million in 2023. Somali-run centers allegedly inflated diagnoses and paid parents kickbacks to enroll children in therapy programs those children did not need. This represents not just theft, but the exploitation of vulnerable families and the manipulation of children’s medical records for profit.

Multiple law enforcement sources confirm that stolen funds have been moved through hawalas, informal clan-based money-trading networks, which then directed the money to Al-Shabaab. This is not speculation. Federal investigators have traced the money.

Thompson characterized this as a sprawling “network” of fraud that has stolen billions while state officials remained ineffective at best, complicit at worst.

The media and Democratic establishment have largely ignored this scandal, leaving Minnesota taxpayers to fund both a broken welfare system and international terrorism. The logic here is simple: when you create massive government programs with insufficient oversight, you create opportunities for fraud. When you combine that with political correctness that prevents honest discussion about where the fraud is occurring, you get exactly this result.

Trump’s decision to end TPS for this population is a direct response to documented criminal activity. The question is not whether this action is justified. The question is why it took so long.

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