WASHINGTON, April 28 - Federal investigators searched more than 20 sites across Minnesota on Tuesday in connection with a probe into alleged social-welfare program fraud, authorities said.
The FBI and Homeland Security Investigations, a component of the Department of Homeland Security, executed 22 search warrants in the state, a Justice Department spokesperson said. Most of the warrants were carried out at business addresses as part of an ongoing fraud investigation, the spokesperson added.
Officials emphasized that the operation was not tied to immigration enforcement. The sweep follows a period of heightened federal focus on alleged benefits fraud in Minnesota that previously prompted a surge of federal agents into the state beginning last December. That earlier operation drew widespread criticism over the tactics used by immigration agents and over the deaths of two U.S. citizens, critics said.
Vice President JD Vance, who is leading a fraud task force established at the request of President Donald Trump, issued a statement saying the administration would be "relentless in exposing these fraudsters wherever they may be hiding." The comment framed the latest actions as a continuation of the administration's priority on rooting out fraud in federally funded programs.
The raids in Minnesota come against a backdrop of sustained criminal enforcement tied to alleged misuse of federal funds. The Justice Department has secured at least 63 convictions dating back to 2022 in cases connected to Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit that said it provided meals to schoolchildren but has been implicated in a large-scale fraud scheme. Local news reports have noted that many defendants in those prosecutions were Somali Americans.
As part of its broader strategy to combat fraud in programs financed by the federal government, the Justice Department has created a new division focused on such cases and installed a Senate-confirmed assistant attorney general to lead the effort. Officials have presented intensified fraud enforcement as a priority for the administration.
The continued investigative activity in Minnesota underscores ongoing tensions between federal enforcement efforts and local concerns about tactics and impacts on immigrant communities. President Trump has previously sought to link Minnesota's Somali American and Somali immigrant communities to long-running scandals involving allegedly stolen federal funds intended for social-welfare programs. In December, the president described Somali immigrants in Minnesota as "garbage" and said he wanted them sent "back to where they came from."
Officials did not provide further operational details about the searches conducted on Tuesday. The Justice Department spokesperson described the actions as part of an ongoing fraud inquiry but did not disclose specific targets or immediate next steps.
Summary: Federal agents executed 22 search warrants across Minnesota on April 28 as part of an investigation into social-welfare program fraud, focusing mostly on businesses. Officials said the operation was not related to immigration enforcement. The activity aligns with a Justice Department effort that has produced at least 63 convictions tied to a nonprofit implicated in an alleged large-scale fraud scheme and reflects the administration's intensified focus on fraud in federally funded programs.