FBI agents walk outside the Mako childcare center in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 28 April 2026. Photograph: Anthony Soufflé/Minnesota Star Tribune via APView image in fullscreenFBI agents walk outside the Mako childcare center in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 28 April 2026. Photograph: Anthony Soufflé/Minnesota Star Tribune via APFederal agents again target Minnesota amid alleged fraud crackdown at daycaresFederal raids unfold in Twin Cities amid ongoing tensions between the Trump administration and Minnesota officials
Federal agents under the command of the Trump administration have descended on Minnesota’s Twin Cities again to primarily target alleged fraud at daycares after the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s so-called “Operation Metro Surge” all but wound down earlier in the year.
“Today the FBI with federal, state and local law enforcement is involved in court-authorized law enforcement activity as part of an ongoing fraud investigation,” the US justice department told the Guardian in a statement on Tuesday.
The justice department added that 22 federal search warrants were executed on Tuesday in Minnesota and that the latest federal raids were not part of an immigration enforcement operation.
That activity unfolded amid ongoing tensions between the Trump administration and Minnesota officials after an immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities region led to the shooting deaths of two US citizens before that operation was eased.
Minnesota news outlet KARE11 reported that the warrants on Tuesday were mostly served at Medicare providers, primarily targeting child and daycare providers.
In response to a tweet about the latest federal raids,JD Vance said on X: “The task force and the [justice department] will be relentless in exposing these fraudsters wherever they may be hiding.”
Earlier, Donald Trump appointed the vice-president as “fraud czar” as part of the president’s broader push to crack down on alleged fraud in Democratic-led states – claims that he asserted, without evidence, could “literally be able to balance our American budget” if resolved.
Tom Emmer, the US House majority whip , a Republican ally of Trump and representative from Minnesota, also weighed in, saying the president “and his administration have made it crystal clear – our country will not tolerate waste, fraud, and abuse, and we are not going to allow people to take advantage of Americans’ generosity”.
Emmer went on to thank the administration, saying in part that “Minnesotans and US taxpayers across the nation are grateful”.
The latest federal raids come just months after an ICE surge wound down in the state amid widespread nationwide protests sparked by immigration agents’ killings of two 37-year-old US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in separate confrontations in January.
Originally intended to deport undocumented immigrants accused of serious crimes, the operation deployed about 3,000 federal agents to Minnesota last winter. Beginning in December, it led to thousands of arrests and caused widespread disruption to daily life across the state, affecting everything from schools to restaurants.
Further, in December, Trump froze Minnesota’s childcare funding over alleged fraud within the state’s social services program – particularly in Minneapolis’s Somali American childcare centers.
Before that, the federal government had brought fraud charges against dozens of people, many of them Somali Americans, who were accused of defrauding a federal program that was meant to provide food to children.
The investigation began during the Biden administration. More than 60 people have been convicted.
Minnesota governor Tim Walz, a Democrat and former running mate of Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, criticized the funding freeze in December. He accused Trump of “politicizing the issue” so as to defund programs which help Minnesotans.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
