By James Heider 

Writer/Reporter 

On Tuesday, April 28th, twenty-two Somali owned daycares around the Twin Cities were targeted by the FBI to crack down on fraud in Minnesota. This is the second round of daycare raids around the metro by federal agents within the last couple of months, the first happening in late December 2025. After a video by YouTuber Nick Shirley went viral, Federal agents were dispatched to Minnesota to investigate fraudulent businesses. No arrests or convictions have been made despite numerous raids, but the Department of Health and Human Services cut off childcare funding, around $185 million, to the State in response.  

The only confirmed case of fraud from a daycare comes in 2021 with the organization “Feeding Our Future”. The nonprofit took advantage of Covid-era pandemic meal programs with the intent of providing food to children. Around $250 million in total were stolen, with over 90 charges and 60+ convictions. 89% of those charged in the Feeding Our Future case were Somali Americans, which leads to the discourse we’re facing today. 

Somali citizens in Minnesota are being targeted by the Federal government through claims of fraud and fears of deportation. Tensions further escalated through “Operation Metro Surge”, a large-scale immigration operation intending to deport and detain illegal immigrants around the state, ending in early February of this year. With around 3,800 detained between January and February, only 106 of those were Somali, around 3% of total detainees. President Trump has been pushing harmful rhetoric aimed at Somali American citizens, publicly denouncing the community with racist statements.  

Conflicting narratives are coming from different people involved in this week’s raid. Tim Walz had this to say on X, formerly known as twitter. “If you commit fraud in Minnesota, you’re going to get caught – and that’s exactly what we saw today. We catch criminals when state and federal agencies share information. Joint investigations work, and securing justice depends on it. Today’s raids by state and federal law enforcement happened because our state agencies caught irregular behavior and reported it. That’s how the system is supposed to work, and our agencies will keep at it as long as there are fraudsters around to put behind bars.” But, The City of Minneapolis claims they had no connection to the ongoing investigation that was engaged on Tuesday. “The City of Minneapolis is not involved in the federal operations being reported around Minnesota today, and as of 9:30 a.m., MPD has not been asked to assist with the execution of federal warrants.”  But Hennepin Country Sheriffs and FBI agents stationed in Minneapolis said they did help with the investigation.  

Meanwhile FBI director Kash Patel responded to Walz’s statement, claiming “This FBI and DOJ with our DHS partners drafted and executed every search warrant today. But go ahead and take credit for our work while we smoke out the fraud plaguing Minnesota under your governorship.” All these statements were posts made on the social media platform X on the day of the raids, Tuesday, April 28th, 2026.