Vance Urges Minnesota Democrats to Repay Fraud Losses

(MENAFN) US Vice President J.D. Vance has argued that Democratic officials in Minnesota should return billions of dollars to taxpayers following allegations that welfare funds were siphoned off by groups tied to Somali immigrants.

Federal authorities last year brought charges against several individuals, claiming that a substantial portion of roughly $18 billion in Medicaid-related claims submitted to 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 could be fraudulent. Prosecutors suggested that as much as half of the total amount may have been improperly obtained.

At the same time, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, have pursued federal reimbursement for expenses they say resulted from immigration enforcement operations in the state. They contend that those actions placed a heavy financial burden on both state and local budgets.

Speaking during a broadcast interview on Saturday, Vance rejected the idea that Minnesota should receive compensation. Instead, he maintained that state leaders should be held financially accountable for what he described as a failure to prevent widespread fraud.

“On behalf of the American people, we’d like reparations from them for allowing Somali fraudsters to steal billions of dollars from the American taxpayers that live in Minnesota. They’ve done nothing to cut down on that fraud,” Vance said.

“I think it’s absurd for people to say, ‘We want reparations.’ Reparations for what? Because we enforce the law that the American people elected us to do,” he added.

Since returning to the White House last year, President Donald Trump has intensified immigration enforcement efforts, pledging to oversee what he describes as the largest deportation campaign in US history.

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