Democratic Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson told a reporter during a January interview that she was not asking for any investigation into potential welfare fraud involving Somalis.
Wilson’s comments resurfaced Monday in a post on X from LibsofTikTok after initially being posted on the site by KOMO, a Seattle-area TV station, on Jan. 7. Wilson claimed that reports of the scandal surrounding Somali scammers looting welfare programs was about making Somalis “a target.”
“Have you asked anyone to follow up on the fraud claims, either to the Department of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs or SPD [Seattle Police Department]?” the reporter asked, with Wilson immediately responding, “No.”
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“So there’s, as far as you’re concerned right now, there’s no reason to suggest there’s any sort of fraud?” the reporter asked, with Wilson responding, “I don’t. This whole issue is not really about fraud, right? It’s about dividing and conquering. It’s about making an immigrant community a target, right? There’s no reason to assume, based on the identity of a day care operator, that their small business is doing anything wrong.”
Independent journalist Nick Shirley ignited a firestorm on social media Dec. 26 after he posted a photo of a day-care center in the Minneapolis area that displayed a sign listing it as the “Quaility Learing Center” on X, along with a 42-minute viral video showing him visiting other day-care centers in the area. Other citizen journalists began probing Somali-run day care centers in Washington, prompting one lawmaker to introduce legislation to mask information about the establishments.
Initial reports of fraud in Minnesota by City Journal in November that also alleged proceeds from the scams went to the Somalia-based radical Islamic terrorist group al-Shabaab, prompted President Donald Trump to declare an end to “Temporary Protected Status” for Somalis in the state on Nov. 22. Federal officials estimated in December the fraud cost at least $9 billion, describing the situation as involving “industrial-scale” fraud, according to CBS News Minnesota.
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surged hundreds of agents into the Minneapolis area to target illegal immigrants from Somalia following the initial reports, with Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis declaring during an interview that aired Dec. 7 on Minneapolis-area TV station WCCO that Minneapolis police would not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement operations.
Whistleblowers in Maine and Ohio have alleged that Somali scammers have engaged in welfare fraud schemes in those states.
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