Video: Democrat governor exposed over $1 billion migrant fraud scheme

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt exposed Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) on Monday after the governor was accused by state workers of allowing “massive fraud” to take place in Minnesota. 

The New York Post reported that more than $1 billion in taxpayer funding was stolen during the COVID-19 pandemic in a major fraud scandal in Minnesota linked to dozens of Somali immigrants.

During a Monday press briefing, Leavitt told reporters, “What does not add to our nation’s character and integrity is refugees who come here under the alleged plight of asylum and fleeing persecution and then come to the United States to abuse our system and rip off American taxpayers.”

Leavitt pointed to a recent article by The New York Times that detailed how Somali immigrants in Minnesota have been “ripping off American taxpayers” through massive fraud schemes. 

The White House press secretary explained that 86 individuals have been charged as part of a “rampant and widespread fraud scheme” involving different programs in the Democrat-run state. She noted that 78 of the individuals are Somali immigrants and that 59 people have already been convicted in “fraud plots” that stole $1 billion from U.S. taxpayers.

“In one scheme, and this is egregious, a nonprofit and its affiliates with these Somali migrants claim to have fed tens of thousands of American children during the pandemic. They were reimbursed for those meals by taxpayers,” Leavitt said. “However, federal prosecutors found that almost all of those meals were never even delivered to hungry children.”

Leavitt explained that instead of the taxpayer funding helping provide meals for children, the money was spent on luxury cars, houses, and real estate in Kenya and Turkey. She also highlighted another fraud scheme that involved hundreds of organizations receiving reimbursements for supposedly helping people at risk of homelessness. 

“Once again, those services were never provided,” Leavitt stated. “All of this has happened under Democrat leadership in a Democrat-run state where these refugees, these migrants, are coming to the United States, they are abusing our system. They are draining our resources that should be going to law-abiding, taxpaying Americans, and this president is not going to put up with it anymore.”

In a Saturday statement on social media, hundreds of Minnesota Department of Human Services employees accused Walz of allowing “massive fraud” to occur in the state.

“Tim Walz is 100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota. We let Tim Walz know of fraud early on, hoping for a partnership in stopping fraud but no, we got the opposite response,” the state workers tweeted.

“Tim Walz systematically retaliated against whistleblowers using monitoring, threats, repression, and did his best to discredit fraud reports. Instead of partnership, we got the full weight of retaliation,” the workers added. “It’s scary, isolating and left us wondering who we can turn to.”