Published on: Dec 31, 2025 05:45 am IST
HHS has halted child-care payments to Minnesota due to allegations of funnelling taxpayer funds to fraudulent daycares.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has frozen all child-care payments to Minnesota amid serious allegations that the state “funnelled millions of taxpayer dollars to fraudulent daycares over the past decade.”
Read more: Minnesota fraud row: DHS goes ‘door to door’ to identify ‘criminals’ | Videos
Jim O’Neill’s statement
HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill announced the payment freeze on a X post, describing the move as an urgent measure to stop “the misuse of taxpayer funds” after Nick Shirley’s video went viral.
O’Neill also said that he has “activated our defend the spend system for all ACF payments. Starting today, all ACF payments across America will require a justification and a receipt or photo evidence before we send money to a state.”
The administration also demanded a comprehensive audit of Minnesota’s childcare system and pay attention to attendance records, licensing and inspections of centers cited in the video.
Additionally, O’Neill declared the launch of a dedicated fraud hotline and email address, childcare.gov. He added, “We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud.”
Read more: Minnesota fraud row update: 98 people charged, Pam Bondi praises Nick Shirley
GOP calls for deportation and citizenship revocation
Tom Emmer, the GOP House Majority Whip, has demanded that Somalis connected to the quickly developing billion-dollar fraud scandal in Minnesota be denaturalized and deported.
“I have three words regarding Somalis who have committed fraud against American taxpayers: Send them home,” he said.
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security both claim to be stepping up their efforts to look into claims of massive fraud that have brought the state of Minnesota, home to the biggest Somali population in the US, to the attention of the country.
According to Attorney General Pam Bondi, 85 of the 98 people who have been charged thus far in relation to the fraud are Somali.
