Trump official alleges Minnesota governor responsible for mass visa fraud

WASHINGTON

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem alleged Tuesday that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is responsible for mass visa fraud amid reports that her agency will soon launch a sweeping immigration raid on the state's twin cities.

"You told me to look into Minnesota and their fraud on visas and their programs, 50% of them are fraudulent, which means that wacko Gov. Walz either is an idiot or he did it on purpose. And I think he's both, sir," Noem told President Donald Trump during a televised Cabinet meeting.

"He brought people in there illegally that never should have been in this country, said they were somebody that they're not. They said they were married to somebody who was their brother or somebody else. Fraudulent visa applications, signed up for government programs, took hundreds of billions of dollars from the taxpayers, and we're going to remove them, and we're going to get our money back," Noem said.

Walz's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the secretary's allegations, but it is the federal government that is responsible for granting visas, not state governments.

The governor issued a social media post responding to a New York Times story which said US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would soon launch an immigration enforcement operation targeting undocumented Somali migrants in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

"We welcome support in investigating and prosecuting crime. But pulling a PR stunt and indiscriminately targeting immigrants is not a real solution to a problem," Walz said on the US social media company X’s platform.

The ICE operation is slated to begin this week and will target hundreds of undocumented Somali migrants, according to the Times. It comes as Trump continues to ramp up rhetoric against the Somali community in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC last month. That attack was carried out by an Afghan national, not a person from Somalia, however.

"Somalians ripped off that state for billions of dollars, billions every year, billions of dollars. And they contribute nothing," Trump said at the Cabinet meeting.

"I don't want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks, and we don't want them in our country. I could say that about other countries too. I can say it about other countries too. We don't want them," he added.