It all started after a video claiming fraud went viral Somali-run child care centres In Minneapolis: strangers peer in from windows, right-wing journalists appear outside homes, and influential people make false accusations.
In San Diego, childcare provider Samsam Khalif was transporting children to her home center when she was surprised by two men with a camera waiting for her in a car parked outside, prompting her to circle the block several times before unloading the children.
“I’m afraid,” said Khalif, who decided to install additional security cameras outside her home. “I don’t know what their intention is.”
Somali-run childcare centers across the United States have become targets since the video caught the attention of the White House amid criticism of the administration. Immigration campaign. Child care providers are concerned about how to maintain the safe learning environments they have created for young, impressionable children who may spend their first days away from their parents.
In the Minneapolis area, child care providers, many of whom are immigrants, say they face hostility, compounding the stress they face from immigration enforcement activity that has exacerbated tensions. Swept through the city.
One child care provider said she saw someone get out of a car that was circling the building and defecate near the center’s entrance. On the same day, a motorist shouted that the center was a “fake daycare.” She had to create new lockdown procedures, budget for security, and now keeps the curtains closed to protect children from unwanted visitors and from watching immigration enforcement proceedings.
“I cannot have peace of mind about whether the center will be safe today,” said the service provider, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted. “That’s a tough pill to swallow.”
The day after Christmas, right-wing influencer Nick Shirley posted a lengthy video with explosive claims that senior members of Minneapolis… Somali community They were running fake child care centers so they could collect federal child care subsidies.
The United States has occasionally witnessed cases of child care subsidy fraud. But the core allegations in the Minneapolis video — that employers were paying the government for children they didn’t care for — were refuted by inspectors. However, the Trump administration attempted a freeze Child care financing For Minnesota and five other Democratic-led states up to A Court ordered Funding to be released.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly targeted Somali immigrants with dehumanizing rhetoric, calling them “trash” and “low IQs,” and suggesting the Republican congressman might attack them. Ilhan OmarThe democracy born in Somalia must be deported: “Throw it out!” In Minnesota, 87% of foreign-born Somalis are naturalized US citizens.
Trump focused on a years-old issue in which A A vast network of scammers — many of them Somali Americans — defrauded the state of Minnesota out of an estimated $300 million that was supposed to help feed children and families. His tone intensified after Shirley’s video was published.
In Federal Way, Washington, and Columbus, Ohio, both home to large Somali communities, right-wing journalists and influencers have suddenly begun appearing in headlines about child welfare operations they pulled from government websites.
In one video, a man arrives at a bungalow-style building in Columbus. Photographed through the glass front door, it shows a foyer with cheerful posters that say “When We Learn, We Grow” and “Make Today Happy.”
“It doesn’t look like a child care center at all,” the man said.
The state of Ohio sent an inspector to the address and found it was in fact a child care center. Her voicemail was hacked, so parents calling heard an obscene message calling Somalis “sand rats” and saying they “worship a false religion of terrorists who rape children.” According to WOSU-FM.
In Washington state, child welfare workers called the police to arrest right-wing journalists who kept showing up outside their homes.
Journalists at the right-wing Washington newspaper Center Square filmed themselves pressing a woman for proof that she ran a child care center for which she was collecting federal subsidies. She refused to answer questions.
“Are you aware of the Somali daycare scam? We are just trying to verify if this is a real daycare,” one journalist said. “Where are the children?”
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson posted a statement on X saying she would not tolerate anyone trying to “intimidate, harass or photograph Somali child caregivers.” Then, Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, issued her own warning: “Questioning/citizen journalism is not hate crimes in America — it is protected speech, and if Seattle tries to quiet that speech, @CivilRights will step in to protect it and set them straight!”
In Ohio, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine held a news conference to debunk a right-wing influencer’s fraud allegations regarding a child care center in Columbus and assured people that the state carefully monitors centers that receive public funds. A child care provider’s refusal to let a stranger in should not be seen as a sign of fraud, he said.
“It shouldn’t be a shock when someone sees something on social media and someone says, ‘I can’t get in this place, and nobody’s going to let me in,'” DeWine said at a news conference in January. “Well, no, no one should let them in.”
Even after DeWine refuted the allegations, House Republicans introduced legislation to more closely monitor child care centers, including legislation that would require those who take public funds to submit live video footage of their classrooms to state officials.
Child welfare advocates say the fraud allegations detract from other, more pressing crises.
Child care subsidy programs in many states have Long waiting listsThis makes it difficult for parents to return to work. Programs that subsidize child care for families struggling to afford it also face funding threats, including from the Trump administration.
Ruth Friedman, who headed the Office of Child Welfare under President Joe Biden, accused Trump and Republicans of manufacturing a crisis for political gain.
“They are using it to try to discredit the movement toward investment in child care,” said Friedman, now a senior fellow at the left-leaning Century Foundation.
Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon said in a statement that the department “rejects the claim that concerns about the integrity of the child welfare program are fabricated.” He urged people to report suspected frauds to the government.
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