The Somali-tied welfare fraud scheme in Minnesota is likely far worse than the American people think, involving “complicit” state government officials and totaling far more stolen money than original early estimates stated, according to Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller.
Billions of taxpayer dollars have been stolen from the state, and much of the welfare fraud has been tied to Somali migrants, as first reported by City Journal. And, alarmingly, some of the stolen money was allegedly funneled to Al-Shabaab terrorists.
“We believe that the Somali fraud operation in Minnesota is the single greatest theft of taxpayer dollars, through welfare fraud, in American history,” Miller said on Fox News. “We believe we have only scratched the very top of the surface of how deep this goes.”
Miller noted that some of the reported welfare scams include people “pretending that children have autism, who are not in fact autistic,” and “pretending to enroll people in food programs, when, in fact, nobody was ever enrolled.”
These fraudsters, Miller said, engaged in “massive fraud, lying, and theft, and grift on a scale we’ve never seen before in American history.”
“The total bill, the total tab for this, is going to be far beyond the numbers being reported,” he said, suggesting we are dealing with billions of stolen tax dollars tied directly to welfare schemes.
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“Based on the records we already have — this is a significant undercount, by the way — 75% of the Somali population in Minnesota is on welfare, and that’s likely a significant undercount of just how much of a financial burden the Somali refugee population is imposing on this country,” Miller added.
.@StephenM: “We believe that the Somali fraud operation in Minnesota is the single greatest theft of taxpayer dollars, through welfare fraud, in American history… and we believe that what we are going to uncover is going to shock the American people.” pic.twitter.com/h4jfFit0jD
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) December 6, 2025
The Trump administration advisor also claimed that Democrat leaders in the state were “fully complicit” in the fraud.
“We believe the state government is fully complicit in this scheme and we believe that what we are going to uncover is going to shock the American people,” he asserted.
Controversial Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) could be tied up in the scandal.
“Omar’s close ties to the $1 billion welfare scam in her Minnesota congressional district are being uncovered,” the New York Post reported this past week. “Omar held parties at one of the key restaurants named in the fraud, knew one of its now-convicted owners, and one of her own staffers has also been convicted — both for stealing millions. Omar even introduced the bill that led to $250 million in fraud. Yet she claims to have been completely unaware of it.”
There are also serious questions about the oversight, or lack thereof, from Democrat Gov. Tim Walz.
Currently, the Treasury Department is investigating allegations that “under the feckless mismanagement of the Biden Administration and Governor Tim Walz, hardworking Minnesotans’ tax dollars may have been diverted to the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced this week.
Related: Ilhan Omar Says Trump Supporters Might Attack Somalis, Brushes Off Fraud Scandal
