Minnesota Republicans defend their focus on fraud despite the ICE surge that followed

Minnesota state Rep. Harry Niska testifies before an oversight hearing amid scrutiny over immigration enforcement and recent developments in his state on Feb 12 in Washington, D.C. Brendan Smialowski/AFP hide caption

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Brendan Smialowski/AFP

MINNEAPOLIS – Minnesota Republicans have defended their decision to welcome social media influencers, including the MAGA-aligned content creator Nick Shirley, into the state to highlight the issue of fraud in Minnesota's child care programs.

What followed was a weeks-long federal immigration enforcement surge 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 a national spotlight was necessary to take on fraud claims in Minnesota's government programs.

"Much of the information that one of the gentlemen in that video was providing was due to information he got from the House Republican staff," Minnesota Rep. Harry Niska, the party's floor leader, told reporters in December. "We have been ready and willing to provide information to anyone who wants to pursue this."

GOP candidates in the state could face repercussions ahead of the midterm elections.

"Immigration definitely overshadows fraud," said Kathryn Pearson, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota. "It has backfired on Minnesota Republicans, I think, in several ways."

Pearson said Democrats will likely have the upper hand when it comes to voters' attitudes on which party is better able to handle immigration and which candidates have the better message on the issue. And in Minnesota, Democrats are leaning in.

"I think the fraud issue is a pretext for this president to do what we have seen, which is fairly lawless, violent and, in cases, reckless actions against the people of Minnesota," Democratic Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy said last week.

"I also think the pretext was caused by the action of the Republicans to invite Nick Shirley, a YouTuber, into town."

Viral video prompts Minneapolis surge

In December, Shirley posted a video of himself holding up his phone, knocking on the doors of several Minneapolis child care centers. He alleged the Somali-American-run daycares were inflating enrollment to get more money from the state.

The claims – some false, some already under investigation – got a lot of attention. Fraud has been a 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 of more than $250 million. Dozens were convicted in connection with that scheme. The majority were Somali American, though not the leader.

Shirley's video gained the attention of the White House. Vice President JD Vance reposted it on social media. Days later, on Jan. 5, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz dropped his bid for reelection to focus on the problem. That pleased Republicans who had called for his resignation.

The White House doubled down on the emphasis on fraud.

"The Trump administration has activated thousands of federal agents, doubled the number of U.S. attorneys in the DOJ office in Minneapolis and surged resources to hold fraudsters accountable and demand justice for law-abiding American taxpayers and citizens across our country," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Soon, thousands of federal agents arrived in and around Minneapolis. They detained immigrants and some citizens. On Jan. 7, one agent shot and killed Renee Macklin Good. Protests over her death rippled across the city.

A demonstrator carries a sign honoring the life of Renee Macklin Good on Jan. 9 in Minneapolis. Ben Hovland/MPR News hide caption

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Ben Hovland/MPR News

Jan. 9, the Trump administration announced the creation of a division for National Fraud Enforcement and said they would send more immigration agents to the state.

But those anti-fraud efforts have been undermined as some federal prosecutors, including the lead prosecutor, working on them resigned in the wake of the ICE surge, said Minnesota House Democratic Leader Zack Stephenson.

"This has crippled our fraud response, and Minnesotans should be outraged by that, and it was all done in the name of supposedly addressing fraud," he said. "Republicans are more interested in distracting and pursuing their other partisan agendas and getting retribution. That's what the president said this is all about."

By Jan. 24, agents had killed Alex Pretti, another U.S. citizen.

Minnesota Republicans say fraud spotlight is key

But Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, a Republican who is running for governor, said the fraud issue and immigration are not connected. And she defended efforts to spotlight fraud in order to root it out.

"So if it took a YouTuber, an independent YouTuber, to get the word out and get Minnesotans to know what was actually going on, and then the national attention – that is good for Minnesota," Demuth said, "because it was our tax dollars that were stolen."

Another Republican candidate for governor, businessman Kendall Qualls, agreed that it shouldn't matter how the issue of fraud came to light — just that it's getting addressed.

"The cases don't go away. The problem doesn't go away," Qualls said. "There's still $9 billion that was last reported that Minnesotans were on the hook for that, that were taken away. So that is a problem under the watch of our leaders in St Paul."

While they dispute who's to blame for the last two months, state lawmakers begin a legislative session Tuesday where fraud and immigration will top the agenda.