Minnesota

Minnesota investigators say child care centers accused of fraud in viral video are operating normally. Here’s what comes next | CNN

Published

1 week ago

January 5, 2026

Minnesota investigators say child care centers accused of fraud in viral video are operating normally. Here’s what comes next | CNN

It was the viral video seen ‘round the world.

The 43-minute video, posted to YouTube the day after Christmas by a 23-year-old conservative content creator, claimed with little evidence Somali-run child care centers in Minnesota were fraudulently taking funding meant to provide child care for low-income families. The video, boosted by Vice President JD Vance and tech billionaire Elon Musk, quickly racked up millions of views.

The impact was swift: DHS and the FBI ramped up their presence in the state, and federal funding for child care in the entire state was frozen.

But a week later, state officials said the child care centers accused of fraud in the video were all operating as expected when visited by investigators.

The state’s initial findings cast doubt on the claims of fraud articulated in the viral video. Still, investigations into alleged wrongdoing are ongoing. Minnesota officials have until January 9 to provide the Trump administration with information about providers and parents who receive federal funds for child care, according to a bulletin sent Friday by the state Department of Children, Youth, and Families to child care providers and shared with CNN.

The Trump administration’s demands are the latest step in a yearslong saga that started with investigations into theft of government funds in Minnesota under the Biden administration.

Here’s what we know about the investigations and what comes next as crucial funding for child care hangs in the balance for thousands of Minnesota families.

On December 30, Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill announced the agency was freezing all child care payments to Minnesota. The state typically receives about $185 million annually in federal child care funding, supporting care for 19,000 children.

“Funds will be released only when states prove they are being spent legitimately,” he added. He said he had demanded Gov. Tim Walz provide a “comprehensive audit” of the centers featured in the video.

The proof must be shared with the government by January 9, according to the email sent by state officials to child care providers. The email said HHS has requested specific details, including the total amount of Child Care and Development Fund payments received by five child care centers and administrative data – like names and social security numbers – for all recipients of federal money. The fund is the main source of federal support for child care and includes the Child Care Assistance Program, which Nick Shirley, the creator of the viral video, alleged was being exploited in Minnesota.

An HHS spokesperson confirmed the January 9 deadline to CNN.

Investigators with the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families conducted “on-site compliance checks” at all the centers shown in the video, the department said in a news release. “Children were present at all sites except for one – that site, was not yet open for families for the day when inspectors arrived,” the release stated. Investigators “gathered evidence and initiated further review,” according to the release.

The department has ongoing investigations into four of the centers mentioned in the video. In total across the state, the department “has 55 open investigations involving providers receiving CCAP funding,” according to the release.

Asked whether the state’s early findings would affect the funding freeze, HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Media Relations Andrew Nixon told CNN, “The onus is on the state to provide additional verification, and until they do so, HHS will not allow the state to draw down their matching funds for the CCDF program.”

In the meantime, thousands of Minnesota families who rely on federal funding for child care are in limbo. It is unclear how quickly funding could be restored if the state meets the January 9 deadline, although the bulletin sent to child care providers says the government will provide the state more information on January 5.

And if Minnesota’s responses are not “satisfactory,” the federal government “says it may withhold CCDF and impose other penalties,” according to the email sent to child care providers.

Child care fraud has been on state authorities’ radar for more than a decade before the viral video. A 2014 report from the Office of Inspector General identified “a pattern of child care fraud activities that involves deception and exploitation.” A few years ago, the state implemented the “Early and Often” program, which involves multiple unscheduled visits to newly licensed centers to ensure they are operating properly.

DHS and FBI also investigating Minnesota fraud

Along with HHS, DHS has dispatched Homeland Security Investigations and ICE officers to the state, posting videos of agents visiting what they call potential fraud sites.

DHS did not directly address CNN’s questions about how the state’s findings that the centers in the viral video were operating normally would affect its investigations, but sent CNN statements from several officials.

“Right now in Minneapolis, Homeland Security Investigations are on the ground conducting a large scale investigation on fraudulent daycare and healthcare centers, as well as other rampant fraud,” read a statement from Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

It is unclear if any arrests have been made for fraud or other crimes in DHS’ latest crackdown, which comes after an ICE operation targeting Somalis in the Twin Cities was announced in December. CNN has asked DHS for more information.

It is notable DHS — the overarching federal department handling immigration and national security — is central to the investigations. Shirley claimed in the viral video child care centers run by Somalis in Minnesota were committing fraud but did not provide the identities of the owners of most of the centers. The vast majority of the state’s Somali population, which numbers around 108,000 in total, are US citizens.

FBI Director Kash Patel also said the bureau had already sent additional resources to Minnesota even “before the public conversation escalated online.” Patel pledged to stamp out fraud, saying in a post on X, “Fraud that steals from taxpayers and robs vulnerable children will remain a top FBI priority in Minnesota and nationwide.”

CNN has reached out to the FBI for information about whether the state’s initial findings have affected its investigations or whether any arrests have been made.

Just ahead of the January 9 deadline, Minnesota lawmakers will testify before the Republican-led House Oversight Committee. The January 7 hearing will be centered around “fraud and misuse of federal funds” and feature testimony from three members of the Minnesota House of Representatives: Kristin Robbins, Walter Hudson and Marion Rarick.

In a separate hearing February 10, Gov. Tim Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison are called to appear before the committee’s investigative panel.

“Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison have either been asleep at the wheel or complicit in a massive fraud involving taxpayer dollars in Minnesota’s social services programs,” Republican Rep. James Comer said in a Wednesday statement about the upcoming hearings.

Dozens of people, the vast majority of Somali descent, were charged in a previous fraud scandal under Walz’ tenure involving a nonprofit prosecutors say falsely claimed to be providing meals to needy children during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The scope of fraud in the state could be much larger, according to at least one federal prosecutor: Half or more of the roughly $18 billion in Medicaid funds which supported 14 Minnesota-run programs since 2018 may have been stolen due to fraud, First Assistant US Attorney Joe Thompson said on December 18, according to The Associated Press.

Walz, a staunch critic of the president and the 2024 Democratic candidate for vice president, has pushed back on Thompson’s assertions while promising to fight fraud.

“You should be equally outraged about one dollar or whatever that number is, but they’re using that number without the proof behind it,” Walz said in a December 19 news conference, according to CNN affiliate KARE.

“I am accountable for this, and more importantly, I am the one that will fix it,” the governor said.

Somali community and child care providers under pressure

The viral video and cascade of investigations have presented real turmoil for the Somali community – already the target of years of vitriol from the president and from Republicans – and for child care providers.

At least one Somali-run day care, which was not featured in Shirley’s video, was broken into and vandalized in the aftermath, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. The Council on American Islamic Relations called for an investigation of possible bias in the incident, which they said “raises serious concerns about the real-world consequences of anti-Somali, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim hate speech circulating online.”

Some licensed child care centers have received “harassing or threatening communications” since the scandal, the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families said in its bulletin to providers.

Several day care providers told CNN they have faced an influx of calls asking about enrollment, hours of operation, and availability which do not seem to be coming from genuinely interested parents and distract from their work.

“It’s just random calls, extra things that we don’t need to focus on,” said Kassim Busuri, who owns a day care near Minneapolis. “We need to focus on our children that we care for.”

And the ongoing funding freeze poses uncertainty for child care providers and the families they serve.

“We have thousands of families wondering if they’re going to be able to be able to get the care that their kids need, if they’re going to be able to go to work next week,” Minnesota Rep. Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn, co-chair of the Children and Families Committee, told CNN over the weekend.

“We have child care providers and small business owners who rely on the work of those parents, not knowing if they’ll be able to keep their doors open, depending on how this freeze proceeds.”

Scrutiny spreads to Washington and Oregon

The explosive impact of Shirley’s video seems to have inspired self-styled investigators in other states with significant Somali populations, too.

Videos have popped up showing other content creators trying, like Shirley, to enter child care centers – and using their locked doors as evidence they are committing fraud. It is not unusual for child care centers to lock their doors and to deny entry to unexpected visitors, especially if they are filming.

The mayor of Columbus, Ohio said in a statement he was aware of the videos and the state has strong safeguards to prevent theft of government child care funds.

“Actions that disrupt licensed childcare operations or create fear in these spaces are inappropriate,” read a statement from Mayor Andrew Ginther’s office.

In Washington, Attorney General Nick Brown said his office has received “reports of home-based daycare providers being harassed and accused of fraud with little to no fact-checking.”

“Showing up on someone’s porch, threatening, or harassing them isn’t an investigation,” he wrote on X. “Neither is filming minors who may be in the home. This is unsafe and potentially dangerous behavior.”

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Minnesota

Why state charges for Minneapolis ICE shooting are possible but tricky

Published

4 hours ago

January 12, 2026

Press Room

Why state charges for Minneapolis ICE shooting are possible but tricky

To get a case to trial, state prosecutors may have to show federal immunity doesn’t apply.

Many in Minnesota and across the country were outraged by the killing of Renee Nicole Good by a federal immigration agent in a Minneapolis neighborhood, and called for the agent to face charges. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who oversees the city’s police department, said the Trump administration’s characterization of the shooting as self-defense is “spin.”

But even if Minnesota prosecutors conclude the shooting was a crime, can they charge a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent for something he did on the job? No, according to Vice President JD Vance, who asserted that the agent has “absolute immunity” from criminal charges.

The reality isn’t so simple. Minnesota state prosecutors may, in fact, be able to prosecute the federal immigration agent who shot and killed a Minneapolis woman, though the pathway forward would come with special challenges.

State officials announced Jan. 9 that they are collecting evidence surrounding Good’s Jan. 7 death, a signal they may consider bringing charges. The move comes after President Donald Trump and other White House officials suggested the shooting was justified, and state authorities said the FBI pulled out of a joint investigation.

Though the U.S. Department of Justice hasn’t announced whether it will bring charges, the hasty statements by White House officials opposing charges make a federal prosecution seem highly unlikely, especially at a time when the lines between the DOJ and White House are increasingly blurred.

“When you have the president, the vice president, the secretary of homeland security all saying that this was self-defense, there’s zero chance that Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice will move forward with a prosecution at the federal level,” Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, told USA TODAY.

At a Jan. 9 news conference, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the top prosecutor for Minneapolis’ Hennepin County, Mary Moriarty, both said they haven’t yet made a charging decision when it comes to Good’s death, and will wait until evidence is evaluated.

Ellison led the state prosecution of Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis cop convicted in 2021 of murdering a Black man who was under arrest, George Floyd. Moriarty was elected in 2022 on a platform of holding police accountable.

Rahmani said he wouldn’t be surprised by a decision to bring charges.

“I think they ultimately will choose to prosecute,” Rahmani said. “Attorney General Ellison’s office has been pretty aggressive in these types of cases, dating back to George Floyd,” he added.

As tensions have flared over the Minneapolis death, federal agents shot and wounded two people during a traffic stop in Portland, Oregon, on Jan. 8. As with the Minnesota case, federal officials said the driver “weaponized his vehicle,” while local officials called for an investigation. Similar questions of potential state charges could arise in that case.

Here’s why Minnesota authorities could pursue state charges, but could also face challenges:

Hurdles to Minnesota prosecuting federal agent

One challenge to Minnesota officials bringing charges is that they would likely have to prosecute the case outside of their home turf. There’s a federal law allowing officers of federal agencies to move their cases to a federal court when they are being prosecuted for something they did as part of their official responsibilities.

That’s a significant disadvantage for state prosecutors, according to Mark Bederow, a criminal defense lawyer in New York City and former Manhattan prosecutor. He noted that, in a federal court, state prosecutors would be dealing with a different pool of potential jurors, a different judge, and different legal processes.

“It’s a road game, instead of having home court advantage,” Bederow said.

In addition, state prosecutors would likely have to meet special legal standards to get the case to trial, because they would be prosecuting a federal agent. In that type of case, defendants often argue they can’t be prosecuted because of a constitutional provision – the Supremacy Clause – that puts federal law above state law.

Federal courts have sometimes blocked state prosecutions under that provision, out of concern that state authorities are using their prosecutorial power to frustrate the federal government from legitimately exercising its own powers, according to Bryna Godar, a staff attorney at the University of Wisconsin Law School’s State Democracy Research Initiative.

Godar wrote in the Lawfare legal publication that federal courts have repeatedly blocked state prosecutions when the federal official was reasonably carrying out lawful federal duties. But, outside those circumstances, courts have allowed the prosecutions to go forward.

“In many cases, the federal officer may ultimately walk away with immunity. But not always,” Godar wrote.

Another potential challenge is courts disagreeing on the exact contours of this type of immunity for federal officers, leaving the law in this area somewhat unsettled, according to Godar. The U.S. Supreme Court hasn’t weighed in on this type of immunity in more than a century.

Murder and manslaughter charges could be in play

Even if state officials do decide charges are warranted, they are unlikely to bring a first-degree murder charge, according to Rahmani. That crime generally requires premeditation.

He said state officials might consider a form of manslaughter or a lesser murder charge, which come with maximum penalties ranging from 10 to 40 years in prison. For example, a person can be guilty of second-degree manslaughter in Minnesota by unreasonably endangering a person’s life or of second-degree murder by intentionally killing someone without premeditation.

“It’s possible that there’s multiple charges and they don’t just land on one, to give jurors really the option,” Rahmani said.

‘Very tough job for prosecutors’

If the ICE agent ended up facing charges, he would likely argue he shot Good in self-defense, former prosecutors told USA TODAY.

Minnesota law allows officers to use deadly force if it’s reasonable for them to believe the force will protect them or another person from great bodily harm.

In this case, the agent may argue that Good appeared to be directing her SUV at him. Trump officials have highlighted video footage from the front of the SUV, saying it shows movement in the agent’s direction. Advocates for Good have pointed to footage from the rear, which shows the vehicle turning as if to pass the agent and get away.

Looking across multiple public videos, which show both Good’s handling of the wheel and the movement of the SUV’s tires, Good is driving simultaneously rightward and forward, as the agent stands towards the left, front side of her car. Then there are three brief sounds that may be bullet shots, one as the agent points his gun at the left side of the front windshield, and then two more as he is pointing at the side window as the car drives away.

Protests have mounted across the country, with many arguing the video shows the shots weren’t reasonable, and protesting what they see as ICE’s aggressive behavior — including towards U.S. citizens such as Good — more generally.

“They are already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at his Jan. 7 press conference. “Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly – that is bull—-.”

But Bederow said, as emotional as the case is, there is much more to be parsed out in terms of witness interviews and video analysis that could illuminate key legal questions, such as whether it was reasonable for the ICE agent to believe he was in danger.

“Lawyers who do this for a living and have experience in self-defense or justification cases realize that there’s a lot more nuance to this than saying, ‘She didn’t mow the guy down, and he shot and killed her,’” Bederow said.

If he does face charges, the agent might argue that he was operating in a heated environment — he and Good’s wife were filming each other outside the SUV as she asked if he “wanted to come at” them, just seconds before the shooting — and that he didn’t have the luxury of analyzing the direction of the SUV’s movements in a frame-by-frame, slow motion video.

“It’s going to be a very, very tough job for prosecutors, notwithstanding the fact that there is very disturbing video and a woman lost her life,” he said.

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Minnesota

Allegiant to acquire Sun Country Airlines in $1.5 billion deal

Published

16 hours ago

January 11, 2026

Press Room

Allegiant to acquire Sun Country Airlines in .5 billion deal

January 11, 2026 / 5:14 PM CST
/ CBS Minnesota

Minnesota-based Sun Country plans to merge with Allegiant in a $1.5 billion cash and stock deal, the two budget airlines announced on Sunday.

Under the definitive merger agreement, Allegiant will take over Sun Country to create a “leading leisure-focused U.S. airline,” a press release said.

“Today marks an exciting next step in our history as we join Allegiant to create one of the leading leisure travel companies in the U.S.,” Sun Country CEO and President Jude Bricker said. “We are two customer-centric organizations, deeply committed to delivering affordable travel experiences without compromising on quality. Importantly, we believe this transaction delivers significant value to Sun Country shareholders and an opportunity to continue to benefit from our growth plans as a combined company.”

The company will be headquartered in Las Vegas, but it will maintain “a significant presence” in the Twin Cities, where Sun Country is based.

The merger would expand service across the United States and internationally, with the combined airline expected to operate nearly 200 aircraft and provide more than 650 routes, according to the press release.

The transaction has been approved by each airline’s board of directors and is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to federal approvals.

Bricker will join Allegiant’s board of directors, along with two other Sun Country board members. Allegiant’s CEO, Gregory C. Anderson, will remain in his role in the combined company.

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Minnesota

How ICE raids in Minnesota connect to a years-old fraud scandal

Published

1 day ago

January 11, 2026

Press Room

How ICE raids in Minnesota connect to a years-old fraud scandal

On Wednesday morning, the Department of Homeland Security posted on X, “GOOD MORNING MINNEAPOLIS!” Rep. Tom Emmer, a House Republican leader who represents Minneapolis suburbs, commented with encouragement: “Go out there and get ‘em.”

The Trump administration has surged thousands of immigration agents into the Twin Cities in what it has called the largest DHS operation ever. While the administration often frames its deportation operations as efforts to keep Americans safe, it has added another angle to its Minnesota campaign: eradicating fraud.

In 2022, during the Biden administration, federal prosecutors uncovered an enormous scheme to defraud a pandemic meals program in Minnesota’s Somali community, leading to charges against dozens of defendants and a growing number of convictions.

In the weeks leading up to the DHS deployment, conservative commentators had elevated that years-old scandal, suggesting that fraud was a reason to target East African migrants in the Minneapolis area. And within days of the story taking hold in conservative social media circles, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on X that agents were “on the ground” in response.

More than 2,000 agents and officers from DHS have descended on the Twin Cities, and tensions are running high after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mom. DHS has said the incident was an act of self-defense, while some witnesses and Minneapolis’ mayor have challenged that explanation.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has attacked the Somali community as “garbage,” and right-wing influencers have filled X with videos purporting to investigate day cares connected to immigrants in an effort, they claim, to uncover ongoing fraud.

Here’s how a scandal prosecuted under both the Biden and Trump administrations went from a relatively local issue to one that has captured nationwide attention and been cited to bolster the White House’s immigration crackdown.

A memorial for Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday.Scott Olson / Getty Images

The crime

The scale of the fraud was massive. Prosecutors initially described a $250 million scheme but have since raised their estimate to $300 million — the largest fraud to come out of Covid-19 relief programs.

Federal prosecutors charged 78 defendants with connections to Feeding Our Future, the Minneapolis nonprofit organization at the center of the scandal. A jury convicted the accused ringleader in March, while other defendants have pleaded guilty and still more are awaiting trial. Most of them are of Somali descent, and the vast majority are American citizens, according to The New York Times, citing prosecutors.

The scam concerned government-subsidized meals for kids, prosecutors said: The nonprofit took grant money meant to feed thousands of children in minority communities, but its work was fictitious and it submitted fake records to keep the money flowing.

Prosecutors have widened their scope. Using the Feeding Our Future fraud as a jumping off point, they have since brought charges against other members of Minnesota’s Somali community alleging fraud against other government support programs.

How it started

The scandal began during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Government spending ramped up to try to alleviate the economic fallout, and agencies loosened some spending restrictions.

Prosecutors said that Aimee Bock, Feeding Our Future’s founder and executive director, worked with co-conspirators to create shell companies, fake attendance rosters and falsify documents to indicate thousands of children were being served meals.

Many of the children Bock was allegedly feeding — and many of her co-conspirators — were Somali Americans.

In November of last year, when conservative influencers started to take an interest in Minnesota fraud cases, they approached nonprofits and businesses with similar questions: asking whether they were providing the services they said they were.

Why it went on so long

There were early red flags, according to an autopsy of the failures conducted by the nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor in Minnesota.

As far back as 2018, the Minnesota Department of Education received complaints about Feeding Our Future’s management. And in February 2020, the Internal Revenue Service revoked the organization’s nonprofit status, citing a failure to file documentation.

Then, in April 2020, with schools closed and safety net programs ramping up, Feeding Our Future sent a draft lawsuit to the Minnesota Department of Education, threatening to sue if the state did not approve its applications for meal programs. The state complied, according to the legislative auditor. A similar pattern continued for more than a year.

In November 2020, Feeding Our Future sued the Minnesota Department of Education, alleging that the state was slow-walking its grant applications.

The lawsuit put state officials on the defensive, according to the Office of the Legislative Auditor, and deterred them from taking action against the nonprofit.

Auditors faulted the state for not having the investigative chops to catch fraud. For example, the state conducted some of its oversight visits virtually — a practice that it later acknowledged did not work.

How they were caught

The FBI learned about the fraud through a tip, according to legislative auditors: In February 2021, the FBI notified the state of allegations it received that Bock was accepting kickbacks and not providing the meals she said she was. Two months later, the state education department told the FBI that the tip had some merit, and the FBI launched its investigation in May.

Consequences arrived in 2022. That January, the FBI raided the office of Feeding Our Future, and the Minnesota Department of Education cut off its funding. Later that year, federal prosecutors announced indictments against 47 defendants. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland described it as “the largest pandemic relief fraud scheme charged to date,” at $250 million.

While the case made national and international headlines because of the scale, the indictments mostly played out in courtrooms and outside the spotlight. Three defendants pleaded guilty in October 2022, and prosecutors began preparing to take the other defendants to trial.

A jury convicted five defendants in a June 2024 trial, and prosecutors also charged additional people beyond those originally indicted.

The 2024 election

When Democrat Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate in August 2024, the fraud investigation was one of the first things Republicans used to attack him. That fall, House Republicans issued a subpoena to Walz for documents related to his oversight of Feeding our Future. But the fraud case fell from national discussion after Harris lost.

Kamala Harris And Running Mate Tim Walz Make First Appearance Together In Philadelphia — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a campaign rally with Kamala Harris on August 6, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Andrew Harnik / Getty Images file

Federal prosecutors kept working on the case. Andrew Luger, the Biden-appointed U.S. attorney in Minnesota, said in December 2024 that he did not expect the election result to significantly alter how the government prosecuted fraud cases like the one involving Feeding Our Future.

“That’s bipartisan,” he told The Minnesota Star Tribune shortly before leaving office.

The investigation mushrooms

Bock, the Feeding Our Future founder whom prosecutors called the mastermind of the fraud, was found guilty in March 2025. She’s now awaiting sentencing and has been ordered to forfeit assets, including a 2013 Porsche and $3.5 million from Feeding Our Future’s bank account.

But federal prosecutors have not stopped their investigation into the meals program. In recent months, they have pursued what they said were similar fraud cases involving other safety-net programs.

In September 2025, the Department of Justice charged eight people, alleging they defrauded a Minnesota program meant to help seniors and people with disabilities find housing. The same month, it charged a man whom prosecutors accused of defrauding a Minnesota health care program designed to help people with autism.

“These massive fraud schemes form a web that has stolen billions of dollars in taxpayer money,” said Joseph H. Thompson, a career federal prosecutor who was serving as the acting U.S. attorney in Minnesota at the time.

Conservative media takes a new interest

On Sep. 18, Trump took aim at Minnesota’s Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who was born in Somalia, and Somali-Americans, telling reporters on Air Force One that Omar is “terrible” and saying “They come from a place with nothing, nothing, no, anything, and then they tell us how to run our country.” Trump’s criticism came after Republicans had tried unsuccessfully to censure her over a reposted video on her X account that Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said “smeared Charlie Kirk and implied he was to blame for his own murder.”

On Nov. 19, City Journal, a magazine run by the Manhattan Institute, a right-leaning think tank, published a story summarizing the Minnesota fraud allegations. It largely drew on local media coverage, indictments and press releases from prosecutors, but it also cited anonymous sources to make the claim that some of the money was routed to al-Shabab, a Somalia-based militant group that the U.S. and other countries have designated as a terrorist organization. Fox News picked up the story. One of the article’s named sources later criticized the piece, and federal prosecutors have not claimed that any of the government funds went to militant groups. Christopher Rufo, one of the City Journal writers, has posted on X that he stands by the piece. City Journal did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reuters reported that the claim about al-Shabab apparently made its way to Trump via several Republican lawmakers. Within two days, Trump said he would terminate temporary deportation protections for Somalis living in Minnesota, asserting on social media that the state had become “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”

Trump continued to attack Somali immigrants in December, as ICE agents launched a new deportation operation in the Twin Cities, which Reuters reported had put the Somali community there on edge.

Influencers focus on day cares

At the same time, Nick Shirley, a right-wing YouTube influencer from Utah, was on the ground in Minneapolis filming himself attempting to visit Somali child care centers. He had previously published a video about Muslims in Minnesota that insinuated an Islamic takeover was afoot, drawing little attention. But on Dec. 26, he released a 42-minute video claiming he uncovered over $100 million in fraud. It quickly went viral and now has more than 139 million views on X.

Other social media influencers and journalists have visited the same facilities identified in Shirley’s video in the two weeks since he posted it — some echoing Shirley’s claims they are fraudulent, and others demonstrating things he got wrong. The Minnesota Star Tribune reported on Jan. 1 that during its visits to the same day cares where Shirley had shown or insinuated no children were present, the newspaper observed children in four and wasn’t allowed inside six others.

Minnesota’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families said on Jan. 2 that its investigators checked nine of the child care facilities portrayed as fraudulent in viral social media clips and found they were operating normally, and one is now closed.

Unproven fraud claims expand beyond Minnesota

Over New Year’s week, Shirley’s video was the top story across conservative media. Right-wing political activists and influencers quickly picked up on his viral success and emulated his tactics with similar videos in which they visited day cares in other states including Ohio, Oregon and Washington. Prominent pro-Trump accounts on X amplified the videos and other posts from people who raised questions about day care business filings.

The vast majority of child care facilities spotlighted appeared to be connected to Somali immigrants. Some state lawmakers and congressional candidates called for state investigations into whether “Minnesota-style fraud” was occurring in their towns.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, tried to tamp down speculation about rampant, unchecked fraud in the state, fact-checking viral but misleading claims on X about some specific day cares. In a subsequent press conference on Jan. 5, he further elaborated on how the state conducts oversight of its 5,200 child care facilities. DeWine said the public shouldn’t be surprised that day cares are telling people who show up while filming that they aren’t allowed to come inside; it’s for the protection of children.

“Hell no — no one should let them in,” he said.

But conservative content creators and activists have continued posting videos of themselves visiting day cares run by members of the Somali community in Ohio and other states. They’ve also drawn attention to business filings, raising questions about why some companies share mailing addresses or ownership.

Musse Olol, president of the Somali American Council of Oregon, told NBC News that businesses in the community have faced what appeared to be coordinated harassment, ranging from racial and religious insults online to people taking photos outside of their offices.

“This feels like an unprecedented and targeted campaign,” Olol said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a nonprofit advocacy group, said Monday that Somali American-run day care centers and businesses need more law enforcement protection because they’ve received an onslaught of threats stemming from the firestorm on social media.

Trump administration freezes funds

The social media focus on day cares has prompted a multiagency response from the Trump administration.

The Department of Health and Human Services said last week it was withholding nearly $10 billion in federal funds that support child care, primarily through the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program, from five states run by Democrats: California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York. On Friday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the move.

Vice President JD Vance told reporters Thursday that the administration planned to create a new assistant attorney general position — run directly out of the White House — to investigate fraud allegations. He claimed there was misconduct in Ohio and California, though he did not provide examples.

The Trump administration has demanded California provide verified attendance information to get its child care funds back, according to a series of letters from the federal Administration for Children and Families cited in the New York Post that speculate that welfare funds have gone to ineligible noncitizens.

HHS also proposed a series of new rules this week to change how day care is subsidized by the government, including getting rid of a requirement to pay based on enrollment figures. Jim O’Neill, the department’s deputy secretary, said on social media that the Biden administration made it easier for fraud to occur in day care support programs through a regulation that based payment on enrollment rather than attendance. However, the Biden-era regulation still permitted states to require attendance records from child care providers and cut them off if they showed “excessive unexplained absences.”

Clashes erupt outside ICE facility in Minneapolis — Law enforcement officers tackle a protester outside an ICE facility in Minneapolis on Thursday.Mostafa Bassim / Anadolu via Getty Images

Meanwhile, DHS posted several tweets in recent weeks announcing that its agents are going “DOOR TO DOOR” in Minnesota to investigate unnamed businesses for fraud, and the DOJ said it is sending additional federal prosecutors to help.

Congressional Republicans have also seized on the issue.

On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held the first in a planned series of hearings on social services fraud in Minnesota. Three Minnesota GOP lawmakers appeared as witnesses, answering questions from Republicans on the committee that steered blame toward Walz. Congressional Democrats accused Republicans of inappropriately focusing on the Somali community.

The committee’s GOP leadership said it may subpoena Walz — who ended his bid for a third term as governor this week — and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison for a future hearing.

That same day — the last of Renee Nicole Good’s life — acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said the agency was surging agents into Minnesota as part of the “largest immigration operation ever.”

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