Trump administration freezes childcare funding to Minnesota in wake of fraud scheme allegations | Minnesota
The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it was freezing federal funding for child care programs in Minnesota after allegations of fraud, first uncovered and litigated during the Biden administration, recently became the focus of conservative influencers and media outlets.
Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill said: video explanation He said the funding freeze was in response to what he called “blatant fraud that appears to be widespread in Minnesota and across the country.” “We’ve turned off the money tap and we’re finding fraud.”
The announcement came a day after national security officials followed a new wave of attention when a right-wing figure from Minneapolis sent a video to workplaces in the city to question workers about alleged fraud.
Years of fraud investigations despite claims from conservatives on social media that allegations of fraud have so far been ignored indictments A lawsuit was filed in 2022 charging 47 defendants for their alleged roles in a $250 million scheme that benefited a federally funded child nutrition program during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Prosecutors eventually secured the conviction of 57 people who stole federal funds donated to the nonprofit Feeding Our Future.
In early December, a federal prosecutor alleged that half or more of nearly $18 billion in federal funds supporting 14 programs in Minnesota may have been stolen since 2018. It was stated that most of the defendants were Somali Americans.
Donald Trump has used the allegations against dozens of Somali Americans to bolster his call for a ban on refugees from Somalia and expand his long-running vendetta against Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar, the most visible member of that community and who represents the state in Congress.
Omar urged people not to blame an entire society for the actions of a relatively few.
O’Neill also said in the social media post that payments made nationwide through the Administration for Children and Families within the health department will now require “justification and receipt or photographic evidence” before money is sent. The department also said it has set up a fraud reporting hotline and email address.
The top health official credited right-wing figure Nick Shirley for posting a video of himself confronting workers at daycares run by Somali Americans in Minneapolis last week. Shirley’s widely viewed video online criticized for falsely presenting allegations of fraudulent schemes as new disclosures. extensively reported on He appeared in local and national media during the Biden administration.
O’Neill said he has requested Minnesota governor Tim Walz provide an audit of daycares that includes attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations and inspections.
“This is Trump’s long game” Walz wrote In response to O’Neill’s statement, he said on social media: “We’ve spent years fighting against scammers. This is a serious problem – but that’s been his plan all along. He’s politicizing the issue to block funding for programs that help Minnesotans.”
Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential candidate, was pressed on the issue last year and said fraud would not be tolerated and that his administration would “continue to work with federal partners to ensure fraud is stopped and fraudsters are caught.”
Walz, who has long defended how his administration responded, said an audit by the end of January should give a better picture of the extent of the fraud. He said his administration is taking aggressive measures to prevent further fraud.
