One Nation Under Fraud: Trump Administration Uncovers Massive Welfare, Citizenship Abuses

The Trump administration’s work to pare back waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government has reportedly exposed a vast network of taxpayer-fleecing scams, abuses of immigration, and of the citizenship process across all corners of the United States. 

The story involves resettled refugees soaking up federal paychecks to run home healthcare and childcare businesses, transnational criminal organizations exploiting food benefit programs, and scammers using fake student profiles to make off with millions in federal student loans. It also involves non-monetary forms of fraud, especially in immigration — legal and illegal alike. 

Minnesota’s Somali community just the start

The Trump administration’s focus on fraud was originally sparked by new attention on a massive COVID-19-era fraud scheme in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Last year, the number of individuals charged by the Justice Department in the scheme surpassed 70. 

The defendants, the vast majority of whom are part of the state’s large Somali immigrant community, were accused of systematically defrauding a federally-funded state food program, instead using the proceeds to enrich themselves, as Just the News has extensively reported.

Recent public reports indicate that federally-funded state government programs beyond just Minnesota are ripe for exploitation and fraud. In a sweeping investigation, the Daily Wire and a researcher from the Capital Research Center found that Ohio spent billions of federal dollars on “personal services” payments to home healthcare companies with dubious credentials. 

These funds are frequently used to compensate individuals for performing non-medical tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and “companionship” for their own family members. Because these services are conducted inside private residences without supervision, it can be difficult to verify actual service delivery. 

The investigation found a surge in dubious home health companies that appear to exist solely to bill the government. In Columbus, the reporters found a single windowless office building that houses 94 different companies that have collectively billed taxpayers $66 million over a few years. Many of the business owners lacked medical training or had criminal records, the outlet reported. 

There is evidence that this type of fraud is specifically encouraged by the way federal government programs are set up. For example, the Office of Refugee Resettlement runs a program that helps new immigrants develop “microenterprises,” like home healthcare companies, “to help generate an income and achieve self-sufficiency.” 

Welfare fraud a top priority

The Trump administration has made hunting down this type of welfare fraud a top priority. President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this year establishing a national task force to combat such fraud and appointed Vice President JD Vance to lead it. 

The task force, with help from the Justice Department and other government agencies, has vigorously pursued states where potential fraud has been documented. Last month, it shut down 447 hospices and 23 home health agencies in California after Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director Dr. Mehmet Oz in January raised concerns about fraudulent hospices in Los Angeles, linking the issue to the Armenian mafia in the area. 

California and Ohio were apparently only the tip of the iceberg. On Wednesday, the task force announced that it would be halting $1.4 billion in federal funding for home health and hospice providers across the entire United States. 

Vance also issued an ultimatum to all 50 states on Wednesday, demanding they show that they are adequately protecting against fraud in federally funded Medicaid programs, or risk losing that funding. 

“Today, we are sending, across 50 Medicaid programs, letters that will require them to show that they are effectively and aggressively prosecuting Medicaid fraud in their states,” Vance said at a press conference. “These letters are the first step. The first effort to try to force these states to get serious about prosecuting fraud.” 

“We’re a generous country. We’re generous people. I love that about this country,” the vice president added. “But part of that generosity is that it extends to our fellow Americans. We cannot give Medicare and Medicaid benefits to everybody all over the world.” 

Dr. Oz said this week that there are signs the Medicaid programs were also exploited by foreign governments. 

“We’ve got Russian government involvement, we believe, in Los Angeles. We’ve got the Chinese government involved in a big fraud ring in New York,” Oz said in an interview with Fox News. “In New York State, the number-one job in the entire state is not retail, it’s not folks working in shops, it’s personal care services. Why? It’s because it’s a jobs program for the state.” 

Federal investigators have previously identified foreign exploitation of federal benefits programs. Last month, prosecutors charged five Romanian nationals for their roles in an alleged conspiracy to steal nearly $1 million worth of food assistance benefits in Ohio and California. 

Last year, another Romanian national was sentenced to ten years in prison for stealing more than 36,000 EBT card numbers in California and New York using skimming devices. He had connections to a Romanian criminal organization, according to prosecutors.

Offenses ranging from support for terrorist groups to firearms trafficking

The Trump administration has also doubled down on rooting out other forms of immigration fraud. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) created a special team of investigators to root out immigration fraud, equipping newly designated special agents with expanded law enforcement powers to investigate, arrest and prosecute violators and even denaturalize cheaters, Just the News reported. 

“We’re going to get to a place where people are going to know that if they file, and they’re going to file something fraudulently, or they’re not giving us their full story, we’re going to find that,” United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow previously told Just The News.

This week, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons announced that federal investigators had identified more than 10,000 foreign students who claim to be working for “for highly suspect employers” under the Optional Practical Training program. The OPT program provides a special type of visa for foreign students to engage in work related to their area of study. 

The Justice Department has also increasingly pursued denaturalization as a tool to punish immigrants who later go on to commit fraud or are accused of supporting terrorist organizations. This month, the Justice Department announced it is seeking to revoke the citizenship of 12 naturalized Americans, claiming they obtained their citizenship fraudulently.

The migrants were from multiple countries, including two citizens from Colombia and one each from Bolivia, China, Gambia, India, Iraq, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Somalia and Uzbekistan. The individuals were accused by the department of various offenses ranging from support for terrorist groups to firearms trafficking. 

Last year, the USCIS found “mass patterns” of marriage and other immigration fraud in Minneapolis, the agency director told Just the News. 

Operation Twin Shield, which was conducted by USCIS in coordination with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the FBI in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, flagged more than 1,000 cases suspected of involving “fraud or ineligibility indicators,” the agency shared in an after-action announcement. 

The agency reviewed applications for immigration benefits, including marriage and family-based petitions, employment authorizations, and certain parole-related requests, the agency said. Of the cases reviewed, the agency found “evidence of fraud, non-compliance, or public safety or national security concerns” in 275 cases.

Steven Richards joined Just the News in August 2023 after previously working as a Research Analyst for the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) in Tallahassee, Florida. He is a two-time graduate of Florida State University with a Masters in Political Science and a B.S. in International Affairs.

Reprinted with permission from Just The News.

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.