The Department of Labor announced on Monday it is sending staff to Minnesota to investigate concerns about fraud in the state’s Unemployment Insurance Program.
The department’s decision to authorize an “on-site specialized UI strike team” in Minnesota makes it the latest of several federal agencies deploying agents to investigate reports of widespread fraud in the state’s welfare programs, including those from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I am appalled at what we are hearing about potential fraud coming from numerous benefits programs in Minnesota,” Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement.
“If there has been any related abuse of our UI systems, it will not be tolerated, and I trust our specialized strike team to get to the bottom of this and report their findings directly to me,” she continued. “Our mission to protect American workers remains unchanged, and I will not allow malicious actors to destroy the integrity of this trusted program.”
The Labor Department noted the agency’s Employment and Training Administration’s Chicago regional office had informed the Trump administration that “an onsite review” found that Benefit Payment Control operations and integrity functions, which seek to identify fraud, waste, and abuse, are not being used in Minnesota’s UI programs.
The Trump administration initially began probing Minnesota in November, when reports broke indicating that over $1 billion in taxpayer funds allocated to state-administered government assistance programs, including Feeding Our Future, had been diverted for use in a massive fraud scheme.
The findings set in motion a chain of events, including investigations into the matter launched by the House Oversight Committee and the Treasury Department.
TREASURY TARGETING MONEY SERVICES BUSINESSES FOR MINNESOTA SOMALI FRAUD, BESSENT SAYS
Republicans have focused criticism on Minnesota residents of Somali origin who they say primarily benefited from the fraud scheme, as well as the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab.
President Donald Trump sought to terminate temporary protected status, a designation offering legal immigration status, for all Somalis in the state in November. The move prompted backlash from Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), who framed it as an effort to “demonize” Somalis.