Fear of being called ‘racist’ was key factor in Minnesota’s fraud scandal, expert reveals

The continuing decline in American assimilation and a deep fear of being accused of racism were major factors in the massive fraud scheme in the United States Minnesota This is starting to appear now, according to one expert.

Minnesota is facing one of the largest social services fraud scandals in U.S. history after federal prosecutors uncovered what they described as “Stacked charts on charts“By Somali-run nonprofits that have drained hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars from child nutrition and medical housing programs.

Since then, prosecutors have charged more than 70 defendants, a large percentage of them members of Minnesota’s Somali community, and secured dozens of convictions as new waves of indictments continue. The scandal has sparked state and federal investigations, congressional scrutiny, and calls for accountability over why warnings were overlooked and how the fraud was allowed to reach such a scale.

Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Border Security and Immigration, said the decline in America’s immigrant intake was fundamental during an interview with Fox News Digital.

Inside ‘Little Mogadishu’: Minnesota’s beleaguered Somali community under a cloud of fraud and Trump attacks

Two Somali women walk through a Minneapolis neighborhood as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz appears in a split photo. Lawmakers say state failures in oversight and political sensitivity over Somali-run nonprofits helped fuel a $1 billion welfare fraud scandal that is now under federal investigation. (Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital)

“Assimilation is a two-sided coin. The pressure comes from within, from your desire to assimilate so you can make it in the new society, but it also comes from without, where society says: ‘Hey, we expect you to do this.’ We expect you, if you want to get a driver’s license, to be able to speak and read English at a basic level.” We don’t do that anymore in America. “We don’t really expect anything from our immigrants,” Hankinson explained.

“There are a lot of people born in America who don’t really like this country and what it stands for. So, they don’t think anyone else should accept it and adapt to it either,” he continued.

Hankinson noted that in no way can much blame be placed on Minnesota’s Somali community, whose population is estimated at about 80,000 people. He said that those involved in the fraud were a minority. However, the fact that the close-knit community was not generally integrated into broader American society and customs meant that many of the factors that could have exposed the plot earlier were not present, according to Hankinson.

“When you come from a culture that gives you nothing from the center, everything is family, everything is clan, everything is local, it’s almost impossible for you to understand how the federal system will work. And if your neighbor comes up to you and says, ‘Hey, we’ve got this great thing, if you just say your kid has autism, I’ll give you a thousand dollars a month.'” That’s a no-brainer for a lot of people, he explained.

“Even if they thought maybe it was wrong on some level, they might think: ‘Well, wait, in my new country, maybe this would be frowned upon, they wouldn’t denigrate a clan member, a family member,'” he added.

Tim Walz was called out by The Washington Post for refusing to take responsibility for the Minnesota fraud scandal

Men participate in the weekly Friday prayer session at the Abu Bakar Al Siddiq Islamic Center amid reports of an ongoing federal immigration operation targeting the Somali community in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, December 5, 2025. (Tim Evans/Reuters)

This, coupled with the presence of generous taxpayer-funded welfare programs and Minnesota being what Hankinson described as a “high-trust state,” made the state “ill-equipped to handle fraud.”

“In Minnesota, these programs were low-hanging fruit. They were so easy to blackmail, it was almost farcical,” Hankinson said. “So the carrot is there to commit fraud, there is no stick.”

He pointed to one aspect of the scheme that prosecutors say Minnesota Medicaid Autism Program It was exploited by companies that recruited families, secured fraudulent diagnoses, and billed for treatment that never happened, draining millions from the program.

He said: “This is disgraceful. Someone should have noticed at some point: ‘Wait a minute, why did autism rates among Somali children go from one per cent to one in three or whatever?'” “There should have been some oversight, and here again you get into the whole thing.” American racial guilt“And it’s a special problem we have, where if you’re an unscrupulous crook, you can always play the race card, and that’ll often get you out of punishment because people are terrified.”

He continued: “No one likes to be called a racist. This is one of the worst things you can be called.” “But I think liberal Americans, especially white liberal Americans, fear that designation more than anything else. So some of these scammers have threatened to make a fuss about being targeted because of race or immigrant status or religion. And that may have contributed to the state authorities dragging their feet a little bit.”

Ilhan Omar says she’s frustrated that Somalis are also victims of the ‘Feed Our Future’ scam

Somali illegal alien Abdizahir Ibrahim, who was convicted of fraud, posed for a photo with Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. (left) and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (right). (ice)

This dynamic has also emerged at the national level. after Trump administration announcement Because of its crackdown on illegal Somali immigrants in Minnesota, the Democratic governor said. Tim Walls She accused her of “demonizing a whole group of people just because of their race and ethnicity.”

“I can’t take Tim Walz seriously, frankly, because he was the governor who was in charge while all this was going on. Where was he?” Hankinson said. “He was asleep at the switch.”

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He added: “It is not a matter of presenting a scapegoat.” “It’s a good thing to send a message, not to the Somali community per se, but to all of Minnesota and the rest of the 49 states that this is America, we have laws, we have rules. When you break these rules, you will be punished.”

Hankinson added that he ultimately hopes to see many Somalis join efforts to crack down on the minority involved in fraud so they can “give their community the reputation it deserves.”