By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - U.S. law enforcement agencies searched more than 20 locations in Minnesota on Tuesday as part of investigations into fraud in social-welfare programs in the state, an area of intense focus by President Donald Trump's administration.
The FBI and Homeland Security Investigations, part of the Department of Homeland Security, executed 22 search warrants in the state, mostly at businesses, "as part of an ongoing fraud investigation," a Justice Department spokesperson said.
Vice President JD Vance, who is leading a fraud task force at Trump's behest, said the administration "will be relentless in exposing these fraudsters wherever they may be hiding."
The raids show the Trump administration is continuing to pursue benefits fraud in Minnesota, one of the stated justifications for sending a surge of federal agents to the state beginning last December in an operation that drew widespread condemnation over the tactics of immigration agents and the killings of two U.S. citizens. Officials said Tuesday's operation was not related to immigration enforcement.
Trump has sought to connect the state's Somali Americans and Somali immigrant communities to long-running scandals involving the theft of federal funds intended for social-welfare programs. In discussing those scandals, Trump in December called Somali immigrants in Minnesota "garbage" and said he wanted them sent "back to where they came from."
The Justice Department has secured at least 63 convictions, dating back to 2022, from defendants facing charges related to Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit that claimed to distribute meals to schoolchildren, but has been implicated in a large-scale fraud scheme. Many defendants in those cases were Somali Americans, according to local news reports.
The Justice Department has sought to sharpen its focus on fraud in federally funded programs, creating a new division and a Senate-confirmed assistant attorney general to lead the effort.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
