Ex-NFL player reacts to Minnesota FBI raids
Federal agents raid 22 Minneapolis businesses in massive fraud investigation
Federal agents are currently raiding 22 businesses in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as part of a major federal fraud investigation. Brooke Taylor reported on-air that the raids were linked to a viral YouTube video from Nick Shirley that exposed allegations of child care fund fraud in December. The Trump administration previously froze child care funding and called for full audits of some daycares.
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Former Minnesota Vikings captain and Minnesota Golden Gophers football star Jack Brewer witnessed a cycle of crime and punishment involving his state’s Somali community.
Brewer, who previously told Fox News Digital that he saw Somali scammers buying luxury sports cars during his playing career on the Vikings, witnessed the FBI conduct raids on alleged Somali scammers at the center of a Minnesota welfare fraud scheme.
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Jack Brewer stands with law enforcement in Minneapolis. (Fox News, Getty Images)
“Americans should celebrate this day. We finally have an FBI that stands up for the poor in this country and stops this corruption that’s happening in Minneapolis and surrounding areas, where they’re robbing, literally robbing, orphans, widows, and the poor,” Brewer told Fox News Digital later Tuesday.
“Thank God Kash Patel and the federal government are stepping in, because they’re the only ones who will attempt to police this place. Minnesota won’t police its own.”
Federal authorities raided more than 20 locations in Minneapolis on Tuesday, including child care facilities. Comprehensive fraud investigation Sources confirmed to Fox News that it is largely focused on Somali-owned businesses.
Authorities executed 22 federal search warrants in Minnesota Tuesday morning as part of the operation. immigration related.
The raids focus on federal fraud investigations into largely Somali-owned businesses, including child care facilities that registered their daycares with the state but allegedly billed for care that was not provided.
“They prey on vulnerable people,” Brewer said of the alleged scammers.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MINNESOTA’S ‘FEEDING OUR FUTURE’ FRAUD AT THE CENTER OF TRUMP’S LATEST CONFLICT
Former Minnesota Vikings safety Jack Brewer speaks during a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 27, 2021. D-Minn. Rep. Ilhan Omar speaks at a news conference at City Hall following the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minn., on Aug. 28, 2025. (Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg; Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
“I believe they’re getting into these networks and passing it on to each other, how to steal from the US government and take advantage of the people that these programs were created to help. These people are disgusting. They’re ripping off the people who need help the most and turning pain into their own personal business model.”
Brewer was a standout special teams player and team captain for the Minnesota Vikings. Signed as a free agent, he played in 15 games in 2002, leading the team in special teams tackles and securing his first career interception against Green Bay. He was appointed team captain in 2003.
Before that, he was a standout safety and team captain at the University of Minnesota after transferring from SMU, earning First-Team All-Big Ten honors in 2001 and was a leading defender on defense.
“Minnesota is one of the most fatherless places in America, especially since 28% of households are single-family households and the vast majority are single mothers. Minnesota is literally vulnerable to these schemes of all these people who have figured out how to manipulate the system and created industries of corruption,” Brewer added.
“A lot of liberal cities, especially Minneapolis, have become completely lawless. They have no control over themselves at all – at the state level, at the local level, or at the city level. All they do is let people get away with crime after crime, whether it’s a violent crime or a white-collar crime… What can you really do to go to jail in Minnesota? If you look at it, they have some of the shortest prison sentences, they let people out of jail right away, and it becomes a free-for-all. It’s a total free-for-all.”
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Minnesota has been under the spotlight for years for Medicaid fraud, including a massive $300 million pandemic fraud case involving the nonprofit Feeding Our Future. This incident drew renewed national attention in 2025, when convictions piled up and the state became a flashpoint. Trump administration broader “war on fraud.”
In 2022, criminal charges were filed against 47 people during former President Joe Biden’s administration. As of December, 57 people had been convicted because they either pleaded guilty or lost their trial. Most of the defendants are of Somali origin.
Fox News’ Bill Melugin and Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
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