Minnesota Democrats using ICE as a distraction from THE scandal

All the news coming out of Minnesota these days involves Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It is driven by daily attacks on ICE by Governor Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and other local officials. While there is no direct evidence tying any of the aforementioned public officials directly to the fraud, there are connections and suspicions currently being investigated.

One is inclined to believe that stirring the immigration pot is strategic – to create a distraction away from the biggest welfare fraud in American History. And it has been working until a young independent journalist named Nick Shirley started his own investigation – along with his research partner known only as “David”.

While mainstream outlets tiptoed around the political sensitivities of the scandal – many totally ignoring it — Shirley dove headfirst into the timeline, the oversight failures, and the political reluctance to intervene. His reporting has been blunt, unfiltered, and uncomfortably direct.

He documented how Minnesota agencies continued approving new fraudulent sites even after concerns were raised. He highlighted how woke political sensitivities surrounding the Somali community made officials hesitant to act. And he exposed the lack of transparency that followed once the scandal finally broke open. And he is still producing new reports – new videos.

In a state where left-wing journalists often treat politicians like extended family members, Shirley’s work has been a dose of cold water. He has become a go‑to source for watchdog groups and Minnesotans who feel the mainstream press has been too gentle with the state’s political class. His reporting has forced uncomfortable questions into the public conversation—questions that Minnesota’s leadership would prefer to avoid.

Walz may be seen as the first political casualty of the scandal. When the fraud finally hit the front page, Walz withdrew and closed down his campaign for re-election as governor. Investigators are now looking into Omar’s husband’s amazing success in going from a modest economic situation to a multimillionaire in a year.

According to the accounting, more than $9 billion dollars has been embezzled from the taxpayers. It involves money from various state agencies that were intended to daycare, children’s meals, transportation services and other welfare needs.

While not all the perpetrators are Somali – and not all Somalis are involved – the scandal is centered in the close-knit Somali community – with more than 80 percent of arrests and convictions being Somali immigrants. Virtually all of the fraudulent enterprises were Somali run. And according to investigators, tens of millions of dollars have been laundered through other American cities and shipped to Somalia in suitcases.

This was not a subtle operation. This was not a few rogue actors fudging numbers. This was an industrial‑scale highly organized fraud ring that claimed to be feeding tens of thousands of children who, as it turns out, existed only on paper. The money flowed freely—into real estate, luxury cars, overseas transfers and to Somalia. It was a criminal enterprise hiding in plain sight.

Federal prosecutors have described the operation as coordinated, hierarchical, and intentionally deceptive. Critics have gone further, comparing it to organized crime—minus the cinematic charm of the Italian Mafia. The defendants allegedly shared shell companies, laundered money through real estate, coordinated their stories, and moved funds overseas. If this isn’t organized crime, it is at least organized fraud on a scale that would have had the Gambino family taking notes.

Dozens of daycare centers were receiving millions of dollars each without serving any children – without providing transportation for the elderly or infirmed. There were multiple listings in office buildings – and even a gas station and liquor store. The fraud was so massive and prolonged that it is impossible to understand how anyone on the government side could have missed it. In fact, there has been testimony that the issue had been brought to the attention of Walz and Ellison in the past.

So, as Walz & Co. pound on the ICE and immigration drum, the investigations continue … the arrests continue …the convictions continue. Even as media attention is being distracted, the scandal continues to fester. What is unfolding largely out of sight at the moment, will be pursued – and will come to a conclusion. And in all probability, it will not come out well for Walz, Frey, Ellison, Omar and anyone else who allowed so much of the taxpayers’ money to be stolen on their watch.

The scandal touches on sensitive political territory. — immigration, community nonprofits, federal funding, and political correctness. And that is precisely why critics say Minnesota’s political leadership hesitated to act. No one wanted to be accused of targeting a minority‑run nonprofit. No one wanted to risk political backlash by holding a minority accountable—especially an immigrant minority. After all, Minneapolis prides itself as a sanctuary for illegal immigrants. So, the fraud continued. And continued. And continued. Until the FBI showed up in town.

Now, as trials proceed and more indictments loom, Minnesota’s political establishment continues to insist that they were blindsided. But thanks to federal prosecutors—and citizen journalists like Shirley—the public now knows better. The scandal is not just a criminal enterprise. It is a failure of oversight, a failure of transparency, and a failure of political courage. It is incompetence and political malfeasance on a grand scale.

The irony of the situation is almost too rich. Minnesota’s government is known for regulating everything from plastic straws to lawn fertilizer. Yet when confronted with a nonprofit claiming to feed thousands of children a day from a strip‑mall office, the state suddenly discovered the limits of its power. Officials who can spot a rogue gas‑powered leaf blower from a mile away somehow missed a sprawling fraud ring filing paperwork for imaginary meals for imaginary children for more than a decade.

So, there ‘tis.