The Trump administration justified its deadly immigration crackdown in Minnesota as necessary to combat fraud by Somali residents, some of whom are accused of defrauding the federal government through a food nonprofit.
President Donald Trump even claimed Gov. Tim Walz (D) declined to run for reelection because he’d been “caught” stealing billions with Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and “others of his Somali friends.”
But in 2020, the first Trump administration was warned by the state that the nonprofit in question, Feeding Our Future, was likely engaged in fraud, and the administration declined to get involved.
That year, the Minnesota Department of Education asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture for support as it considered taking action against the nonprofit, which had contracts to provide meals for children and adults with disabilities. Minnesota told the USDA about startling growth in Feeding Our Future’s reimbursements, which increased 252% from 2019. While pandemic-driven changes could explain some of the increase, Minnesota’s overall reimbursements for the federal programs in question had only gone up 14%.
A 2024 audit report by the Minnesota legislature examining the Feeding Our Future scandal said officials with the Education Department complained that the USDA was unresponsive when they asked about how to deal with problems presented by the nonprofit.
