Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota argued that members of the Somali community are also victims of the massive 'Feeding Our Future' welfare fraud scheme, which federal prosecutors have described as the largest pandemic-relief fraud in the country. She expressed frustration over how the scandal has been framed around Somali involvement, emphasized that Somalis are Minnesota taxpayers who lost potential benefits, and raised concerns about backlash against the community amid widening state and federal investigations.
A sprawling welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota tied to the now-defunct nonprofit Feeding Our Future has drawn intense scrutiny of Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s administration and Minnesota’s Somali community.
Federal prosecutors and the Biden-era Justice Department have described the Feeding Our Future case as the largest pandemic-relief fraud scheme in the nation, alleging that conspirators falsely claimed to have served millions of meals to children during COVID-19 while diverting hundreds of millions of dollars for personal use, including luxury homes and cars. According to a New York Times account cited by Fox News, broader fraud schemes in Minnesota have taken root in parts of the state’s Somali diaspora through social-service and health programs, though the ringleader in the Feeding Our Future case is not Somali.
On Sunday, Rep. Ilhan Omar appeared on CBS’s "Face the Nation" and said members of the Somali community were also harmed by the fraud. In remarks reported by outlets including Fox News and AOL, she said, "I want to say this also has an impact on Somalis, because we are also taxpayers in Minnesota. We also could have benefited from the program and the money that was stolen. So it's been really frustrating for people to not acknowledge the fact that we're also, as Minnesotans, as taxpayers, really upset and angry about the fraud that has occurred." She added that she had pressed federal officials about how the fraud went undetected for so long, writing to the attorney general to ask, "How can this amount of money disappear fraudulently without there being alarms set off?" according to Fox News’ account of the interview.
The conservative outlet City Journal has reported, and The Daily Wire has relayed, that fraud in Minnesota’s human-services and welfare systems under Walz totals in the billions of dollars, with at least $1 billion in schemes they say are largely connected to members of the Somali community. That reporting also cites allegations that some stolen funds were funneled abroad, including to the Somalia-based terrorist group al-Shabaab, though federal authorities have not publicly confirmed a direct terrorism-financing link in charging documents.
In its Morning Wire "Minnesota Fraud Firestorm" briefing, The Daily Wire highlighted New York Post reporting that connected Omar to figures later convicted in the scandal. According to that account, Omar held political events at one of the restaurants named in the Feeding Our Future case, knew an owner who was subsequently convicted of stealing millions, and employed a staffer who was later convicted of similar thefts. The New York Post also reported that Omar’s 2020 MEALS Act, a bill aimed at expanding meal access during the pandemic, has been associated by critics with roughly $250 million in fraud because it facilitated access to federal child-nutrition funding that was later exploited. Those stories have not alleged that Omar herself engaged in criminal conduct.
Omar, for her part, has condemned the scheme as "reprehensible" in comments to local outlet KARE 11, saying that using the guise of feeding children to divert funds to extravagant expenses was "abhorrent" and that anyone involved should be held accountable, according to Fox News. On CNN last week, she attributed some of the vulnerabilities to the speed with which emergency programs were created during the pandemic, saying, "I just think that a lot of the COVID programs were set up so quickly that a lot of the guardrails did not get created," as quoted by The Daily Wire.
Homeland Security adviser Stephen Miller has seized on the scandal to make a broader critique of immigration and Democratic governance in Minnesota. In comments reported by The Daily Wire and the New York Post, Miller described the Minnesota welfare schemes as "the single greatest theft of taxpayer dollars, through welfare fraud, in American history" and claimed investigators had "only scratched the very top of the surface" of the fraud’s full scope. He alleged that state government officials were "fully complicit" and asserted that perpetrators used tactics ranging from fabricated food-service records to fraudulent claims for services such as autism treatment. Miller further claimed that about 75% of Minnesota’s Somali population receives welfare benefits, though independent statewide data to support that specific percentage has not been publicly presented.
The scandal has also prompted closer examination of political and oversight ties in Minnesota. The Daily Wire, citing New York Post reporting, says federal and state reviews have raised questions about what Walz’s administration knew as warnings about irregularities mounted. Separately, the New York Post has reported that several Minnesota Democratic officials, including Omar, previously accepted campaign contributions from individuals later charged in the Feeding Our Future fraud before returning or redirecting those funds once the connections came to light. Omar has maintained that she was an early voice calling for aggressive investigations and that neither she nor her legislation authorized or condoned fraud.
Omar has also voiced concern about the safety of Somali Americans as the scandal has become a flashpoint in national politics, particularly after former President Donald Trump’s recent remarks attacking Somali migrants in Minnesota. In interviews discussed by Fox News and other outlets, she has said she has received death threats and warned that rhetoric portraying Somalis collectively as fraudsters or "garbage" could encourage violence from some of Trump’s supporters. She has urged that law enforcement pursue all fraud aggressively while political leaders avoid blaming the entire Somali community for crimes committed by individuals.
The Treasury Department and the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, chaired by Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, are among the bodies now examining the Minnesota fraud cases, according to The Daily Wire. Multiple federal prosecutions remain underway, and additional audits and legislative reviews are expected as Minnesota and federal officials continue to assess how pandemic-era aid programs were overseen and exploited.
