Agents serve search warrants in federal fraud probe in Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Agents served multiple search warrants Tuesday in Minnesota in an ongoing federal fraud investigation of publicly funded social programs, authorities said.

Few details were released. It’s the latest tension between the Trump administration and state and local officials in Minnesota where a monthslong immigration crackdown led to the deaths of two people before the operation was eased.

Before that crackdown, the government investigated and brought charges against dozens of people, many of them Somali Americans, who were charged with fleecing a federal program that was meant to provide food to children.

“Homeland Security Investigations in cooperation with our law enforcement partners executed criminal search warrants in Minneapolis relating to the rampant fraud of U.S. taxpayers dollars,” the department said.

The department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to requests for information about the operations.

In February, Vice President JD Vance said the Trump administration would “temporarily halt” $243 million in Medicaid funding to Minnesota over fraud concerns, as part of what he described as an aggressive crackdown on misuse of public funds. Minnesota sued in response, warning it may have to cut health care for low-income families if the money was held back.

Gov. Tim Walz told Congress in March that he wanted to work with the federal government to help with fraud investigations, but the immigration surge was making that more difficult.

“The people of Minnesota have been singled out and targeted for political retribution at an unparalleled scale,” Walz said at the time.