Minnesota's governor and attorney general on Wednesday defended their attempts to combat fraud and told a U.S. House committee that their efforts have been hampered by President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown in the state.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee accused Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison of stalling to fight fraud in government programs, saying they put politics ahead of rooting out abuse instead of pausing payments.
"You have not been good stewards of the taxpayer dollars," said Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the committee. "And the Democratic position is keep the money flowing. The American taxpayers have had enough."
Walz said he wanted to work with the federal government to help with fraud investigations, but the immigration surge was making that more difficult.
"The people of Minnesota have been singled out and targeted for political retribution at an unparalleled scale," Walz said. "We're going to prosecute, as we have, every single person that's involved in fraud, but we can't do it alone."
Walz and Ellison defended their efforts on fraud, while also trying to turn the focus of the hearing to the surge of 3,000 federal agents in Minnesota that began in December. The Trump administration cited fraud as one justification for its enforcement action.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testified Tuesday that about 650 investigators remain in Minnesota as part of a broader fraud probe.
"Operation Metro Surge did nothing to address fraud in our state," Ellison said. "It harmed our economy and it scarred our people and it dealt a devastating blow to fraud enforcement in Minnesota."
Ellison noted the series of resignations of lawyers in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota, leaving those who remain "drowning in immigration-related petitions" instead of prosecuting fraud.
On Tuesday, the U.S. attorney for Minnesota appeared before a judge for a contempt hearing related to Immigration and Customs Enforcement not returning personal property of detainees.
Ellison said his office has "punched above our weight" in winning 300 Medicaid fraud convictions and recovering more than $80 million for taxpayers.
Republican Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana called on Ellison to resign, accusing him of not leading investigations into criminal fraud activity.
Last week, Vice President JD Vance said the Trump administration would "temporarily halt" $243 million in Medicaid funding to Minnesota over fraud concerns, as part of what he described as an aggressive crackdown on misuse of public funds.
Minnesota sued on Monday to stop the money from being withheld, warning it may have to cut health care for low-income families if the money is held back.
Comer on Wednesday accused Walz of not stopping Medicaid payments despite knowledge of fraud because he "didn't want to rock the boat."
Comer and other Republicans accused Walz of lying about when he first found out about fraud in a $250 million scheme known as Feeding Our Future and stalling to act in order to protect the Somali American community. Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio asked Walz if he know how many of those who had been indicted were Somali Americans.
"Their ethnicity is not my concern," Walz said.
Somali Americans make up 82 of the 92 defendants charged so far in the Feeding our Future case, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for Minnesota.
Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia of California, as part of the effort to focus the hearing on the immigration crackdown, held up images of children detained by federal officers and a picture of the blood-stained car seat of Renee Good who was killed by an officer. Federal officers also killed another Minnesota resident, Alex Pretti, who had been filming enforcement operations.
"This violence does not make us safer," Garcia said. "It does not address fraud, waste and abuse."
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