Jacob Frey told Minneapolis' Somali community on Saturday that they are "our family," using Somali Independence Day remarks to pledge solidarity as fraud scrutiny intensifies in Minnesota.
Those comments landed weeks after a Republican-led House Oversight Committee report accused Gov. Tim Walz's administration of ignoring repeated warnings about fraud in state social-services programs.
More than 110 people have been charged across Minnesota fraud schemes, the committee said, including many defendants identified as members of the state's Somali immigrant community; it estimated about $300 million in federal child-nutrition funds was stolen during the pandemic.
Frey also invoked Operation Metro Surge, a Trump administration immigration and public-safety initiative that ended in February after officials said it led to more than 4,000 arrests in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
Walz administration officials have disputed the committee's findings, leaving the fraud allegations and their political fallout at the center of a broader debate over enforcement and discrimination.