A damning investigation by City Journal reporters Ryan Thorpe and Christopher Rufo reveals what hardworking Minnesotans have feared: massive welfare fraud in the Land of 10,000 Lakes has reportedly funneled millions of taxpayer dollars all the way to the Somalia-based terror group al-Shabaab. This is not petty embezzlement; it is alleged theft on an industrial scale that—if true—turns welfare policy into a national security disaster.
The scandal centers on Minnesota’s Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program, originally pitched as a modest $2.6 million aid effort that mushroomed into tens of millions in payouts before state officials finally pulled the plug. State records and reporting show the program paid out wildly escalating sums and that payments to scores of providers were halted amid “credible allegations of fraud,” forcing the Department of Human Services to suspend the program.
This is only one thread in a larger tapestry of corruption that includes the notorious Feeding Our Future child-nutrition scheme and inflated autism-service claims, cases that prosecutors say involved fake companies and sham enrollments. The result has been staggering losses of public money—money meant for seniors, children, and the vulnerable—that instead enriched con artists and possibly funded criminal networks.
Even more chilling are federal counterterrorism sources and former task-force investigators who say portions of the stolen proceeds were routed through hawala money-transfer networks and ended up in Somalia, where al-Shabaab has a stranglehold on the local economy. One confidential source bluntly warned that, in practice, “the largest funder of al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer,” and those are the sort of warnings Washington and the media should have been screaming from day one.
Where was the political outrage? Governor Tim Walz and Democratic leaders ran one of the most generous welfare regimes in the country while apparently leaving oversight to the wind, and many national outlets treated these revelations like a regional nuisance rather than a political and security earthquake. As Jesse Watters rightly said on air, this should have been the biggest story of the 2024 election—because the people who let this happen are the same political class pushing unchecked spending and lax enforcement.
Federal prosecutors have begun to act, unsealing indictments and describing fictitious companies created solely to bill Medicaid, but talk of prosecutions is not the same as systemic reform. Law-and-order conservatives must demand full accounting, immediate audits of every high‑risk program, deportation or revocation of benefits for those who commit fraud, and a national conversation about stopping taxpayer money from subsidizing crime and terror. The safety of American citizens and the integrity of our institutions depend on it.
