Trump admin announces ‘targeted review’ of MN’s unemployment insurance program

The U.S. Department of Labor announced plans for a “targeted review” of Minnesota’s unemployment insurance program amid mounting scrutiny of fraud in the state’s human services programs — now a politically potent issue that’s reached the Oval Office.

The department sent a letter to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development asserting that recent news reports of fraud in the state’s Medicaid-funded human services programs could signal fraud and abuse in unemployment benefits.

“If there has been any related abuse of our (unemployment insurance) systems, it will not be tolerated, and I trust our specialized strike team to get to the bottom of this and report their findings directly to me,” Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a press release.

A spokeswoman for DEED said the agency routinely exceeds the federal Department of Labor’s metrics for payment accuracy and has a fraud rate below the national average.

“We welcome the opportunity to illustrate the strength of our payment controls and oversight,” DEED said.

Chavez-DeRemer is just the latest Trump official to take an interest in fraud in Minnesota in recent weeks after it caught the attention of President Trump, who’s used heritage of those charged in the Feeding Our Future and Medicaid frauds — most have Somali ancestry — to attack the entire Somali American community as “garbage.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week his agency is increasing scrutiny on funds going to “areas of concern, such as Somalia,” and investigating allegations that fraudsters have directed their stolen loot to the al-Shabaab militant group. These allegations, based on anonymous sources published in a conservative outlet, are not new and unsupported by any federal terrorism financing charges. (Federal prosecutors have said the fraudsters are greedy, not ideological.)

Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, threatened earlier this month to withhold funding to programs suspected of being targeted by widespread fraud unless the state Department of Human Services provides weekly updates on its audit activities. Those include the 14 programs the Walz administration announced would be scrutinized in October.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have also announced probes.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed without evidence that 50% of Somali visas are fraudulent and blamed Gov. Tim Walz, even though her own agency — not the state — grants visas.

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