‘Only Doing It For PR Purposes’: Ilhan Omar Says ‘No Justification’ For Trump Admin’s Somali Fraud Crackdown
Harold Hutchison
Media Reporter
January 11, 2026
CBS News’ Margaret Brennan pressed Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar on Sunday over massive welfare fraud in the state, after Omar claimed there was “no justification” for the federal response to the scandal.
Federal officials estimated in December that the amount of suspected fraud in Minnesota’s Medicaid program had reached over $9 billion, as multiple federal agencies are investigating the scandal and the Trump administration is pausing payments to the state pending audits of the welfare programs. The vast majority of people charged in connection to the scandal thus far have been of Somali descent. (RELATED: Tim Walz’s Daughter Thinks Journalist Had ‘Ethical’ Duty To Not Blow Lid Off Somali Scammers)
“It is just creating fear. What they are doing is creating confusion, chaos, trying to intimidate people from being able to exercise their regular normal activities that they would. There is no justification in any of the things that they say,” Omar told Brennan on “Face the Nation” Sunday. “The 87 people that you’ve described as being investigated, many of them adjudicated, all happened under the Biden Administration. There is no justification for the search. We know that ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] has the ability to conduct raids. There is no reason to have over 2,000 people coming into our city and creating the level of terror that they have created.”
WATCH:
https://dailycaller.com/2026/01/11/ilhan-omar-somali-minnesota-fraud-trump-admin/