(DCNF)—White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller told Fox News host Laura Ingraham Friday that the welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota centered around Somali immigrants could make for the “greatest financial fraud” in the history of the United States.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is surging into the Minneapolis area to target illegal immigrants from Somalia after revelations into at least $1 billion in fraud, prompting a probe by the Treasury Department into allegations that some of the stolen funds went to the radical Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabaab. Miller observed during an appearance on “The Ingraham Angle” that almost all of the Somalis who immigrated to Minnesota were on welfare programs.
“The Somali community have been engaged in systematic defrauding of the government for years,” Miller told Ingraham. “We’re going to discover, ultimately, we are in the throes right now of a full-throated, all-hands-on-deck federal investigation, is that the scope, scale, size and sheer magnitude of the fraud eclipses anybody’s worst nightmare.”
“According to official government records, 90% of Somali households with children are on federal welfare. The real number is probably 100% because federal records always undercount,” Miller said. “You’re talking about a population that has been imported into Minnesota in which virtually every single member of the population is receiving welfare from the federal government. This could very well end up, Laura, being the greatest financial fraud scandal in American history.”
State employees accused Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota of engaging in “systemic” retaliation against whistleblowers who warned of the fraud schemes as the Justice Department prosecutes multiple federal cases. Walz admitted during a Nov. 30 appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the state “attracts criminals,” but he also demanded that Somali residents not be demonized.
Walz also attacked Trump Friday for highlighting the fraud, claiming the president was “indiscriminately targeting immigrants.” Trump announced he would end “Temporary Protected Status” for Somalis in Minneapolis in response to the allegations and also said that the influx of refugees had “destroyed our country.”
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