The Trump administration justified its deadly immigration crackdown in Minnesota as necessary to combat fraud by Somali residents, some of whom are accused of defrauding the federal government through a food nonprofit.

President Donald Trump even claimed Gov. Tim Walz (D) declined to run for reelection because he’d been “caught” stealing billions with Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and “others of his Somali friends.”

But in 2020, the first Trump administration was warned by the state that the nonprofit in question, Feeding Our Future, was likely engaged in fraud, and the administration declined to get involved.

That year, the Minnesota Department of Education asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture for support as it considered taking action against the nonprofit, which had contracts to provide meals for children and adults with disabilities. Minnesota told the USDA about startling growth in Feeding Our Future’s reimbursements, which increased 252% from 2019. While pandemic-driven changes could explain some of the increase, Minnesota’s overall reimbursements for the federal programs in question had only gone up 14%.

A 2024 audit report by the Minnesota legislature examining the Feeding Our Future scandal said officials with the Education Department complained that the USDA was unresponsive when they asked about how to deal with problems presented by the nonprofit.

“For example, one MDE official told us that in communications between MDE and USDA about initiating administrative action against Feeding Our Future, USDA pushed responsibility back to MDE, telling the department that it should make decisions consistent with federal regulations,” the report said.

The report also said that when the state asked about unusual attendance patterns reported at child meal sites ― namely, perfect daycare attendance over an extended period, which was a red flag for fraud ― the USDA said the attendance pattern was plausible under pandemic rule changes in effect at the time. “When MDE reached out to USDA to notify it of unusual attendance patterns, USDA responded that perfect attendance would be possible due to the waivers,” according to the report.

In April 2020, after the state hesitated to approve eight new feeding sites for Feeding Our Future, the organization threatened to file a lawsuit accusing the government of racial discrimination against the Somali community that the organization served.

A former USDA official, who requested anonymity during an interview with HuffPost, recalled a state official asking the federal government for support to defend against the allegations. The state sought a letter of support from the USDA saying the number of meals Feeding Our Future claimed to be serving was implausible and could be a sign of fraud. “These numbers don’t look right, and the state is justified in taking the action that it is taking,” the former USDA official recalled thinking. “We discussed it as being fraud.”

The official urged higher-ups at USDA to support the state’s suspicion of fraud, but they declined. They didn’t want to get involved.

“I was very frustrated and disappointed that we didn’t act faster,” the former official said. “We were waiting for it to hit the papers. When it did, nobody was surprised.”

The Feeding Our Future fraud ― as well as additional fraud allegations involving Medicaid and other programs, plus a dubious investigation by a right-wing YouTuber ― are what prompted the Trump administration to send thousands of federal immigration agents to Minnesota. The shocking show of force has terrorized residents, killed two American citizens and forced a reckoning in Congress, where Democrats are now holding up government funding legislation to demand reforms for Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics. It’s the first time the federal government has ever cracked down on welfare fraud with violence.

“This whole thing started during the first Trump administration, and what’s frustrating to me is, reading these news stories, there’s no acknowledgement of that,” the USDA official said.

The USDA, its former leader Sonny Perdue, and the Minnesota Department of Education did not respond to requests for comment.

The state also brought its concerns about Feeding Our Future to the USDA’s inspector general office, which investigates fraud, “but that did not resolve the issue either,” then-MDE commissioner Willie Jett wrote in the 2024 report. The inspector general’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The state legislature’s audit concluded the MDE had all the authority it needed to cut off an organization that flouted program rules, and it faulted the agency for failing to be more aggressive. In January 2021 the department declared Feeding Our Future “seriously deficient” after belatedly learning the IRS had revoked its tax-exempt status, though it took a whole year for payments to stop. That spring, the state told the FBI about its fraud suspicions and a criminal investigation began. Starting in 2022, dozens of people were indicted for allegedly embezzling more than $250 million in federal funds.