Federal agents return to Minneapolis to target daycares for suspected fraud

Teams of federal agents once again swarmed sections of Minneapolis early Tuesday morning, multiple officials confirmed to CBS News, exercising search warrants at about 20 childcare centers for suspected fraud.

No one was arrested in the raids — a stark contrast from last winter’s immigration crackdown during Operation Metro Surge — but the sweeping law enforcement activity did appear to signal a refocused effort on the part of federal authorities to investigate the billion-dollar COVID-era fraud schemes in Minnesota that had once drawn the Trump administration’s attention and ire. 

“Today the FBI with federal, state and local law enforcement is involved in court-authorized law enforcement activity as part of an ongoing fraud investigation,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday.

Since 2021, 92 people have been charged in the schemes, with 67 convicted, including five people who pleaded guilty last month for their roles in the Feeding Our Future scandal that exploited a federal nutrition program.  

“I am proud of our team of prosecutors, federal agents, and law enforcement partners who continue to expose the rampant fraud in Minnesota,” U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen said on March 20.

Rosen declined comment on Tuesday.

A CBS News Minnesota crew witnessed about a dozen agents operating at the Mini Childcare Center in South Minneapolis just after 6 a.m. local time. One agent was taking photos while another was seen walking a large portable file case inside. 

Mini Childcare Center, notably, was mentioned in a viral social media video posted last December by YouTuber Nick Shirley, who went door to door to about a dozen Somali-owned daycares and health clinics. That video was amplified by Elon Musk, Vice President J.D. Vance and then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, who pushed the fraud story into the center of the national conversation. 

President Trump and other Republican lawmakers further focused that attention on the state’s large Somali community, as most of the fraud defendants are of Somali descent, drawing stiff criticism from local officials, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, who denounced Mr. Trump’s criticism as “vile, racist lies and slander towards our fellow Minnesotans.”

Still, Walz was increasingly put on the defensive, and even ended his reelection campaign on Jan. 5, while also announcing the appointment of a “fraud czar” to protect taxpayer-funded social programs. 

The ensuing weeks changed the entire dynamic, however, with more than 2,000 federal agents from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) descending on the Twin Cities, igniting fierce clashes with protesters and resulting in the shooting deaths of two Americans, Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Roughly 3,700 immigrants were arrested and detained, most of whom were not Somali nor connected to any alleged fraud.