CHICAGO: Republican US Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas denounced the growing “Somali fraud scandal” in Minnesota as “morally repugnant” during a meeting of the Senate’s Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, which met on Feb. 9.
Allegations of fraud include claims that state and federal money have been used for personal reasons, such as the purchase of vehicles, vacations, clothes and personal expenses, rather than to provide childcare or food services for seniors.
There have also been accusations that some Somali-run childcare centers either had no children being served, or far fewer of them than what was claimed in government funding applications.
“There are few crimes more morally repugnant than stealing from vulnerable children,” Cruz said. “Every dollar stolen is a meal not eaten, a doctor’s visit missed and a future diminished. Child welfare fraud plunders our children’s potential and erodes our nation’s future.
“And disturbingly, at the start of this new year, America has learned that this kind of looting wasn’t occurring in some distant or lawless place, but in the heart of America’s Midwest.”
