Featured Image Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty
Topics: Donald Trump, Immigration, Minnesota
Joe Yates
The Trump administration has moved to freeze more than $10 billion in federal funding to several Democrat-led states, taking aim at childcare and social services.eRIt comes Recently, there have been public concerns that taxpayer-funded benefits, including the Child Care Development Fund, Social Services Block Grant program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) have been improperly distributed to non-US citizens.
The move is part of President Donald Trump's approach to tackling immigration in the country, with the Department of Health and Human Services set to pause the programs in California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York.
The largest portion of the freeze involves TANF, with at least $7.35 billion now blocked from reaching each state, while nearly $2.4 billion from the Child Care Development Fund is also affected - alongside an additional $869 million tied to the Social Services Block Grant program.
As reported by the New York Post, letters notifying state governments of the funding freeze were expected to be sent out Monday (January 5), citing fears that benefits were being fraudulently routed to non-US citizens.
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Taking to Truth Social, the 79-year-old POTUS slammed Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for allegedly mishandling tapayer money.
"Minnesota’s Corrupt Governor will possibly leave office before his Term is up but, in any event, will not be running again because he was caught, REDHANDED, along with Ilhan Omar, and others of his Somali friends, stealing Tens of Billions of Taxpayer Dollars," Trump blasted.
"I feel certain the facts will come out, and they will reveal a seriously unscrupulous, and rich, group of 'SLIMEBALLS.' Governor Walz has destroyed the State of Minnesota, but others, like Governor Gavin Newscum, JB Pritzker, and Kathy Hochul, have done, in my opinion, an even more dishonest and incompetent job. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!"
As well as Minnesota, Trump seemingly hints at California, Colorado, Illinois, and New York as states to get their funding cut.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz acknowledged concerns over fraud but criticized the federal response while ending his re-election campaign.
“We cannot effectively deliver programs and services if we can’t earn the public’s trust,” the governor said.
"We’ll win the fight against the fraudsters, but the political gamesmanship we’re seeing from Republicans is only making that fight harder."
Concerns about misuse of funds are not new, as a little over six years ago, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General found that New York City had improperly billed over $24.7 million in child care subsidies.
Minnesota has also been under heightened scrutiny, with federal agencies previously questioning whether public funds were used to unlawfully 'fuel illegal and mass migration'.
Those inquiries triggered further investigations by the Treasury Department and the House Oversight Committee into alleged large-scale fraud involving nonprofits connected to the Somali community in the Twin Cities.
In 2019, there was around 90,000 illegal immigrants living in Minnesota. By 2023, that had surged to an estimated 130,000 - roughly 2 percent of the state population, according to the Pew Research Center.
Of those, the Somali diaspora population is a little over 100,000.
Around $250 million in funds have been secured by federal prosecutors, with the funds having been stolen by a Somali-linked organization, Feeding Our Future, and used to purchase luxury cars and properties.