WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is cutting off more than $10 billion in social services and child care funding meant for a handful of Democrat-led states over concerns that the benefits were fraudulently funneled to non-citizens, officials told The Post Monday.
The Department of Health and Human Services will freeze taxpayer funding from the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF), the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, and the Social Services Block Grant program.
The Trump administration is cutting off more than $10 billion in social services and child care funding meant for a handful of Democrat-led states, officials told The Post Monday. Getty Images
Minnesota has been at the center of allegations that child care programs are perpetrating fraud after a viral video from YouTuber Nick Shirley alleged nearly a dozen day cares had no kids attending. X / Nick Shirley
At least $7.35 billion in TANF money will be prevented from going to California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York.
The CCDF funding block of nearly $2.4 billion affects all those states.
Another $869 million from the Social Services Block Grant coffers is being kept from all five states as well.
The funding pauses were to be announced via letters to each state sent Monday, citing concerns that benefits were fraudulently going to non-US citizens.
The HHS Office of Inspector General found more than six years ago that New York City improperly billed the federal government for more than $24.7 million in child care subsidies.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) blasted the Trump administration’s decision to pull back funds.
“To use the power of the government to harm the neediest Americans is immoral and indefensible,” Gillibrand said in a statement. “This has nothing to do with fraud and everything to do with political retribution that punishes poor children in need of assistance. I demand that President Trump unfreeze this funding and stop this brazen attack on our children.”
HHS also previously sent letters in December to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey asking whether the billions of taxpayer dollars helped unlawfully “fuel illegal and mass migration,” The Post first reported.
Those inquiries were followed by probes the Treasury Department and House Oversight Committee also launched into the mounting fraud scandal, which involves several nonprofits linked to the Somali community in the Twin Cities.
Around 130,000 illegal migrants resided in Minnesota as of 2023, an increase of around 40,000 from 2019 and roughly 2% of the state’s population, according to the Pew Research Center.
The Somali diaspora population in the state tops 100,000, most of whom live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
Federal prosecutors have already secured dozens of convictions related to $250 million in funds stolen by one of the Somali-linked organizations, Feeding Our Future, which used the ill-gotten gains to purchase luxury cars and real estate holdings.
HHS also previously sent letters in December to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. @Tim_Walz/X
The Department of Health and Human Services will freeze taxpayer funding from the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF), the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, and the Social Services Block Grant program.
First Assistant Minnesota US Attorney Joe Thompson has since alleged, however, that the “magnitude cannot be overstated” and claimed fraudsters skimmed as much as $9 billion.
“What we see in Minnesota is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes. It’s staggering, industrial-scale fraud,” Thompson told reporters in a Dec. 18 news conference.
YouTuber Nick Shirley ramped up the pressure by visiting around 10 child care centers in the state that took $111 million in taxpayer funds — a little less than half of which appeared to be open, subsequent reporting from the Minnesota Star Tribune confirmed.
Walz acknowledged the concerns about fraud in a press conference Monday at which he also announced the end of his third run for the governor’s office.
“We cannot effectively deliver programs and services if we can’t earn the public’s trust,” the Minnesota Democrat said, before taking a shot at Trump and his “allies in Washington.”
“We’ll win the fight against the fraudsters, but the political gamesmanship we’re seeing from Republicans is only making that fight harder,” he added.
Trump fired back in a Truth Social post Monday: “Minnesota’s Corrupt Governor will possibly leave office before his Term is up but, in any event, will not be running again because he was caught, REDHANDED, along with Ilhan Omar, and others of his Somali friends, stealing Tens of Billions of Taxpayer Dollars.”
“I feel certain the facts will come out, and they will reveal a seriously unscrupulous, and rich, group of ‘SLIMEBALLS,’” the president also said.
“Governor Walz has destroyed the State of Minnesota, but others, like Governor Gavin Newscum, JB Pritzker, and Kathy Hochul, have done, in my opinion, an even more dishonest and incompetent job. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!”
A spokesperson for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said “the state has not been officially notified of any changes to these funding sources,” but if accurate, “it would be awful to see the federal government targeting the most needy families and children this way.”
A rep for the Gov. Gavin Newsom administration also said California had not gotten guidance on funding changes, but said the state is “committed to safeguarding the integrity of all child care subsidy payments and takes any potential misuse of funds seriously.”
