WASHINGTON — The FBI raided 22 childcare centers in Minnesota Tuesday morning as part of a wide-ranging investigation of social services fraud.
The raids were not focused on immigration enforcement, unlike this past winter’s Operation Metro Surge, but reportedly focused on prominent businesses tied to the Somali-American community.
“Today the FBI with federal, state and local law enforcement is involved in court-authorized law enforcement activity as part of an ongoing fraud investigation,” a Justice Department official told The Post.
The targets included the Quality Learning Center — a Minneapolis day care that infamously misspelled the word “Learning” in its signage.
President Trump announced a “war on fraud” in his February State of the Union address and put Vice President JD Vance in charge of a task force leading the effort.
The focus on fraud in Minnesota has largely been pandemic-era feeding programs and autism support services that fleeced taxpayers.
The Justice Department has since September indicted seven alleged fraudsters who allegedly recruited members of the Somali community to enroll children in fake autism services, raking in $14 million. One defendant has pleaded guilty.
At least 65 people have been charged criminally with the separate Feeding Our Future scam, which allegedly ripped off taxpayers to the tune of $250 million. Many have pleaded guilty in the sprawling case, which the DOJ began prosecuting in the Biden administration.
The Trump administration estimates fraud in Minnesota alone at $19 billion, with dozens charged criminally.
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz expressed regrets during a recent congressional hearing for not more effectively guarding against fraud and noted that he had accepted responsibility by ending his bid for a third term this past January.
