The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched an investigation into Minnesota’s use of billions of dollars intended for social welfare programs, amid allegations that the funds were diverted to support illegal and mass migration rather than their designated purposes.
Alex Adams, assistant secretary of HHS’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF), said that his agency has “legitimate reason to think that they’ve been using taxpayer dollars incorrectly,” citing the recent Minnesota fraud scandal in which more than $1 billion meant for COVID-era welfare programs was diverted towards luxury purchases and even to the Somali terrorist organization al-Shabaab.
Adams sent letters to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and a nonprofit that received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants to operate Head Start programs.
“We are concerned that they might be used to fuel illegal and mass migration,” Adams told the New York Post, citing a duty to “accountability for American taxpayers.”
“Right now we’re at the exploratory phase,” he continued. “American taxpayers generally fund these programs … We’re trying to get data from them that will help give us confidence that there’s not fraud.”
Minnesota received more than $8.6 billion from the HHS ACF under Joe Biden. Now the department is requesting “a comprehensive list” by December 26 of state entities that received those funds between 2019 and 2025.
Adams’ letter stated “public statements from hundreds of Minnesota Department of Human Services employees alleging that clear warnings of fraud were repeatedly disregarded, that whistleblowers faced retaliation, and that widespread misuse of federal funds may have persisted for years under your leadership.”
“These concerns have been heightened by recent federal prosecutions and additional allegations that substantial portions of federal resources were fraudulently diverted away from the American families they were intended to assist,” he added.
The state is already under investigation by the Treasury Department and the Republican-led House Oversight Committee.
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