How Minnesota became the center of the Somali community and fraud allegations

Somali immigrants have flocked to Minnesota over the past two decades because of the state’s liberal social policies and plentiful jobs that others won’t do.

Many Somalis who fled a brutal civil war in hopes of a better life have now found themselves stuck in a cycle of poverty and government dependence. It is that cycle of poverty that some say has led directly to the allegations of fraud plaguing Somalis in Minnesota, home to the nation’s largest Somali population.

Over the past year, 98 people in Minnesota have been charged with fraudulently obtaining federal funds used to subsidize the cost of low-income children. Of those charged, nearly 90 are of Somali descent.

The allegations have sparked a widespread backlash against Minnesota’s Somali community. President Trump disparaged the community as “garbage” who should be removed from the country because “they contribute nothing.”

“They come here with nothing and they drive around in Mercedes-Benz,” Mr. Trump said Tuesday. “You know the Mercedes-Benz dealers do well in that area of Minnesota.”

The backlash also has raised questions about why tens of thousands of people would move from the arid, desert country to one of America’s coldest states.

Somalis were attracted to Minnesota because of its reputation for martisoor, which means “hospitality” in Somali, said Ahmed Ismail Yusuf, who authored a book about the history of Somalis in Minnesota. He said the state’s “liberal attitude and social behavior” were welcoming for Somalis, a tone set by former Democratic Vice Presidents Walter Mondale and Hubert H. Humphrey, both of whom hailed from the state.

“Walter Mondale and Hubert Humphrey laid the groundwork for Somalis to be welcomed into the state,” Mr. Yusuf told The Washington Times. “There is actually a state that practices martisoor, which, along with California, meant it was open to refugees.”

When Mondale was seeking reelection as vice president in 1980, he was the first politician to meet with the Somali community in Minnesota, which at that time numbered fewer than 5,000, Mr. Yusuf said. Mondale asked the Somali community, “What do you need?”

Minnesota offered more than just pro-immigrant social policies. Somalis soon landed jobs as taxi drivers, in the hospitality industry and at meatpacking plants.

The first small cluster of Somalis arrived in Marshall, Minnesota, about 150 miles west of Minneapolis.

The Somali population escalated dramatically in the late 1990s amid a brutal civil war that ravaged the East African nation. With little food and political instability, they followed what Mr. Yusuf dubbed “scouts and pioneers” to Minnesota before migrating to Minneapolis.

“There were industries here where no experience was needed. That’s how we found this place,” Mr. Yusuf said. “We came to know that we could actually provide, and that’s when the people who did these jobs brought their families and then realized their kids needed schools, so they came to Minneapolis and went to public schools.”

Roughly 260,000 people of Somali descent were living in the U.S. in 2024, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Of those, roughly 98,000 are immigrants, with 80% being naturalized citizens.

About 80,000 Somalis, or about one-third of their U.S. population, reside in the Twin Cities region. Other states with large Somali populations include Ohio, Washington and California.

For some Somali refugees, the transition to living in Minnesota has been difficult.

More than half of children in Somali immigrant homes in Minnesota, or 52%, live in poverty, and about 39% of working-age Somalis have no high school diploma, according to data from the Center for Immigration Studies.

In addition, about 54% of Somali-headed households in Minnesota receive food stamps, and 73% have at least one member on Medicaid.

Nearly every Somali household with children, 89%, receives some form of welfare, CIS found.

In contrast, about 21% of Minnesota’s nonimmigrant population is on some form of welfare.

“Although Somalis have recently been implicated in welfare fraud, any population with poverty rates as high as theirs will qualify for extensive means-tested aid,” wrote Jason Richwine, a CIS scholar. “The best way to reduce immigrant consumption of welfare is not simply crack down on fraud, but reduce the number of new arrivals who have low earning power.”

Many Somalis are the sole providers for relatives back in Somalia, who rely on funds from those living in America. With the state’s low threshold for doling out cash and lax oversight, the funds became an easy target for any fraudster, especially those working menial jobs that offer little financial security.

A report last year by Minnesota’s legislative auditor found that the state Department of Education ignored early warning signs of fraud in the Feeding Our Future Program, a welfare program for children in low-income households.

The report found that the department considered withholding funding because of fraud allegations but later backed down, fearing racial discrimination lawsuits and negative publicity. Roughly $250 million was stolen from the program.

In remarks Tuesday before the Detroit Economic Club, Mr. Trump vowed to freeze all welfare payments to illegal immigrants. He drew a direct line to the welfare assistance and fraud.

“If you’re on public assistance like almost all Somalis are — did you see where 94% of them are on public assistance — you can’t wire money out of the country,” Mr. Trump said. “But more importantly, we’re probably not going to give them money anymore because of the tremendous abuse and illegality being perpetrated in our country.”

Mr. Yusuf disputes the poverty numbers, arguing that they paint the Somali community with a broad brush.

“We are doing fine,” he said. “We have lawyers, professors, corporate Somalis. We have politicians.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who fled Somalia as a child and came to the U.S. as a refugee, became the first Somali American elected to Congress in 2018.

Scrutiny of the Somali community and the Minnesota programs has increased in the weeks since independent journalist Nick Shirley posted a video of himself going to Somali-run day care centers in Minnesota and seeing whether children were present.

Mr. Shirley said in a video that he uncovered more than $100 million in fraud at those centers. He visited multiple Minnesota day care facilities, including the Quality Learning Center in South Minneapolis, which had received a large amount of state funds but appeared inactive. The Quality Learning Center had a sign that spelled “learning” as “learing.”

The allegations have become a focal point for Mr. Trump, who has bashed the community and used the fraud to promote his administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown.

Last month, Mr. Trump said Somalis “destroyed our country and all they do is complain, complain, complain.”

In his remarks Tuesday, Mr. Trump vowed to shine a spotlight on the alleged fraud.

“In Minnesota, we’re cracking down on the Somali scams, ending the brazen and shameless theft of taxpayer dollars,” he said.