Despite ICE surge, Minnesota Republicans don’t regret fraud videos : NPR
Minnesota Republican State Rep. Harry Niska testifies before an oversight hearing as part of a scrutiny of immigration enforcement and recent developments in his state February 12 in Washington, DC.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP
hide caption
toggle caption
Brendan Smialowski/AFP
MINNEAPOLIS – Minnesota Republicans defended their decision to host social media influencersincluding MAGA-aligned content creator Nick Shirley to the state to highlight the problem of fraud in Minnesota’s child care programs.
What followed was a weeks-long federal immigration enforcement campaign that led to upheaval in and around Minneapolis, thousands of arrests and the deaths of two U.S. citizens.
Minnesota Democrats have blamed Republicans for the turmoil, but Republicans say it was necessary to draw national attention to tackling allegations of fraud in Minnesota government programs.
“Much of the information provided by one of the men in this video was due to information he obtained from House Republican staff,” Minnesota Rep. Harry Niska, the party’s leader, told reporters in December. “We are ready and willing to provide information to anyone who wishes to pursue this path.”
GOP candidates in the state could face repercussions ahead of the midterm elections.
“Immigration definitely eclipses fraud,” said Kathryn Pearson, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota. “It backfired on Minnesota Republicans, I think, in many ways.”
Pearson said Democrats will likely have the upper hand when it comes to determining which party is best able to handle immigration and which candidates will have the best message on the issue. And in Minnesota, Democrats are mobilizing.
“I think the issue of fraud is a pretext for this president to do what we’ve seen, which is some pretty lawless, violent and, in some cases, reckless actions against the people of Minnesota,” Democratic Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy said last week.
“I also think the pretense was caused by the Republicans’ action of inviting Nick Shirley, a YouTuber, to town.”
Viral video causes surge in Minneapolis
In December, Shirley posted a video of him holding his phone, knocking on the doors of several Minneapolis daycares. He alleged that daycare centers run by Somalis and Americans inflated registrations to get more money from the state.
These claims – some false, others already under investigation – have received a lot of attention. Fraud has been the subject of ongoing reporting and federal investigations in Minnesota for years.
The most well-known scheme took place during the COVID pandemic, involving a child nutrition program that was defrauded. more than 250 million dollars. Dozens of people have been convicted in connection with this scheme. The majority were Somali Americans, but not the leader.
Shirley’s video caught the attention of the White House. Vice President JD Vance reposted it on social media. A few days later, on January 5, Democratic Governor Tim Walz abandoned his re-election bid to focus on the problem. This pleased the Republicans who had called for his resignation.
The White House has redoubled its focus on fraud.
“The Trump Administration has activated thousands of federal agents, doubled the number of U.S. attorneys in the DOJ’s Minneapolis office, and increased resources to hold fraudsters accountable and demand justice for taxpayers and law-abiding American citizens across our country,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Soon, thousands of federal agents arrived in and around Minneapolis. They arrested immigrants and some citizens. On January 7, an officer shot and killed Renee Macklin Good. Protests over his death spread throughout the city.
A protester carries a sign honoring the life of Renee Macklin Good on January 9 in Minneapolis.
Ben Hovland/MPR News
hide caption
toggle caption
Ben Hovland/MPR News
On January 9, the Trump administration announced the creation of a division for National fight against fraud and said they would send more immigration agents to the state.
But these anti-fraud efforts have been undermined by some federal prosecutors, including the main prosecutorwho worked there, resigned following the rise of ICE, said Minnesota House Democratic Leader Zack Stephenson.
“This has crippled our response to fraud, and Minnesotans should be outraged by this, and all of this was done in the name of so-called combating fraud,” he said. “Republicans are more interested in deflecting attention and pursuing their other partisan agendas and getting retaliation. That’s what the president said this is all about.”
On January 24, agents killed Alex Prettianother American citizen.
Minnesota Republicans say fraud is key
But Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, a Republican running for governor, said the fraud problem and immigration are not related. And she championed efforts to shine a light on fraud in order to root it out.
“So if it took a YouTuber, an independent YouTuber, to get the word out and let Minnesotans know what was really going on and then get national attention, good for Minnesota,” Demuth said, “because it was our tax dollars that were stolen.”
Another Republican gubernatorial candidate, businessman Kendall Qualls, agreed that it shouldn’t matter how the fraud problem came to light, just that it gets fixed.
“The cases don’t go away. The problem doesn’t go away,” Qualls said. “There are still $9 billion left It was last reported that Minnesotans were responsible for this and they were taken away. So this is an issue under the watch of our leaders in St. Paul. »
As they argue over who is responsible for the past two months, state lawmakers begin a legislative session Tuesday in which fraud and immigration will be at the top of the agenda.
