Tim Walz thought he could sweep Minnesota's fraud crisis under the rug.
A viral video just blew his cover story wide open.
And Eric Schmitt made one demand about Minnesota fraud that left Tim Walz panicking.
YouTuber's investigation triggers federal crackdown on Minnesota welfare scam
Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt isn't mincing words about the welfare fraud eating away at Minnesota like a cancer.
When independent journalist Nick Shirley posted a 42-minute investigation showing supposedly operational daycares that looked abandoned and received millions in taxpayer funds, the video exploded to 100 million views.
Schmitt watched the footage and had seen enough.
The Senator, who spent years as Missouri Attorney General prosecuting fraud cases, recognized exactly what was happening in Minneapolis — and it made his blood boil.
"This is a scam that reaches far and wide, and I'm kind of tired of the talk," Schmitt told Fox News. "This is about prosecutions now. This is about putting people in jail. They've taken billions of dollars, billions of dollars."
FBI Director Kash Patel responded by surging federal resources into Minnesota, calling the fraud cases "just the tip of a very large iceberg."
The Trump administration froze all federal childcare payments to Minnesota and deployed Homeland Security agents to investigate what Health and Human Services officials are calling industrial-scale welfare theft.
What they found makes the $250 million Feeding Our Future COVID fraud scheme from 2022 look like pocket change.
Schmitt calls for denaturalization and deportation in Minnesota welfare cases
Schmitt laid out exactly what needs to happen to the fraudsters stealing from American taxpayers.
He stopped short of the usual Washington double-talk about "looking into" the problem or forming another useless committee.
"Every visa that can be revoked should be revoked," Schmitt stated bluntly. "Every deportation that should happen should happen right away, and in some cases where necessary, denaturalization should happen."
That last word — denaturalization — sent shockwaves through Minnesota's political establishment.
Schmitt's talking about stripping citizenship from people who committed fraud to obtain it, then booting them from the country permanently.
"A strong signal should be sent to immigrant communities that if you're going to come here and fleece the American taxpayer, we're actually going to prioritize taxpayers over this toxic empathy that's dominated the Democrat Party," Schmitt explained.
The fraud isn't limited to one program or one city.
Federal prosecutors now estimate that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds flowing through 14 different Minnesota programs since 2018 may have been stolen.¹
Daycare fraud, autism services fraud, housing assistance fraud, COVID meal program fraud — the scams branch out like a spider web across every welfare program Tim Walz's administration touched.
State Medicaid autism claims exploded from $3 million in 2018 to $399 million in 2023.²
One in 16 Somali four-year-olds in Minnesota has been diagnosed with autism — triple the state average.³
That's not a medical phenomenon — that's organized fraud on a scale prosecutors are calling unprecedented.
Court documents show fraudsters used stolen taxpayer money to buy luxury cars, waterfront properties in Turkey and Kenya, and take island vacations to the Maldives.⁴
Text messages recovered by federal investigators show defendants bragging about becoming millionaires in their twenties through welfare scams.
Walz's denials crumble as Trump administration cuts off the money spigot
Tim Walz tried playing defense, claiming he's been "working for years to crack down on fraud."
Nobody's buying it.
Minnesota state Rep. Kristin Robbins says she warned Walz repeatedly about fraud in social services programs and watched him turn a blind eye.
"He has turned a blind eye for so long that he cannot deny there were so many whistleblower reports, so many media reports," Robbins told the New York Post.⁵
Walz's own Department of Human Services employees accused him of ignoring fraud warnings for years.
State officials spotted warning signs of the Feeding Our Future fraud before the COVID pandemic even started but faced pressure from the nonprofit to stop asking questions.
Why? Because Feeding Our Future accused them of racial discrimination.
The organization's founder is white, but most charged defendants are Somali immigrants, and Feeding Our Future weaponized accusations of racism to shut down oversight.
That same playbook got repeated across program after program while Walz's administration stood paralyzed.
Now Republican state legislators are calling for Walz's resignation over the scandal.
"Leadership means doing the right thing even when it is difficult, which is why we are calling on Gov. Walz to resign," five GOP legislators wrote in a joint statement.⁶
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the Justice Department is executing search warrants and subpoenas as investigators move to make arrests.
"People will be in handcuffs as a result of the fraud that Governor Walz has allowed to occur for many, many years," Leavitt stated.⁷
Eric Schmitt wants to see more than just jail time for the ringleaders.
He's calling for denaturalization and deportation because this isn't garden-variety welfare fraud — this is organized criminal networks exploiting America's immigration and social services system while politicians like Walz looked the other way.
¹ Jeff Meitrodt, "Federal agents probe fraud allegations targeting Somali child care providers in Minnesota," PBS NewsHour, December 30, 2025.
² Christopher Rufo and Ryan Thorpe, "Minnesota Welfare Fraud: Some Funds Went to Al-Shabaab," City Journal, November 21, 2025.
³ Ibid.
⁴ "Luxury cars and private villas: See how Minnesota fraudsters spent millions intended for hungry kids," CBS News, December 12, 2025.
⁵ "Minnesota Rep. claims Gov. Tim Walz ignores fraud issue," The Hill, December 30, 2025.
⁶ Ashley Grams, "Group of Minnesota GOP legislators calls on Gov. Walz to resign amid fraud investigations," CBS Minnesota, December 30, 2025.
⁷ "Trump administration says it's halting federal child care payments to Minnesota after viral fraud claims," NBC News, December 30, 2025.
