Sen. Amy Klobuchar stood in a Minnesota hotel ballroom, opened with an Islamic greeting, and told Somali migrants she had worked to make it easier for them to send money home.
“As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh”
Republicans are reminding people of he 2017 event, that preceded the exposure of the massive Somali Migrant fraud in Minnesota, as Klobuchar is running for governor.
They point out that at the event, Klobuchar spoke Somali, took an upside-down American flag, and bragged about clearing the way for transfers of fraudulently obtained cash.
“Now, we know you do your part, and that’s why Congressman Ellison and Senator Franken and I work so hard to reduce the redundant regulations on remittances to Somalia, lessening the burdens for banks,” she said. “We have more to do, but we will continue to fight for you.”
That was a reference to the Money Remittances Improvement Act of 2014.
Then-Rep. Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minneapolis and now Attorney General, introduced it.
The House passed it on a voice vote, the Senate passed it by unanimous consent, President Barack Obama signed it.
The law let the Treasury Department rely on state exams of money-transfer firms instead of running a second federal exam on the same shops.
Ellison said remittances were about one-third of Somalia’s economy and that banks were dropping the transmitters because of compliance risk.
Paulsen said the bill would make it easier for migrants to support family overseas while still providing safeguards.
Klobuchar had been on this issue for years.
🔺️In 2012 she joined Ellison in a meeting with a Treasury official after banks cut off Somali money-transfer accounts.
🔺️In 2015 she said, “Somali-Americans in Minnesota are a vital financial lifeline for their relatives in Somalia, and we need to ensure a secure, legal and transparent way for them to send remittances.”
🔺️In April 2017 she and Republican Rep. Tom Emmer, then co-chair of the Congressional Somalia Caucus, pressed the Trump administration not to cut aid to the Horn of Africa.
🔺️ She warned a proposed cut could mean about $300 million less in food and other aid for Somalia and neighboring countries.
🔺️Somalia has no normal banking system, and money moves through hawala, which is controlled by Islamic t*rrorisrs.
🔺️Investigations found that millions in stolen taxpayer dollars were sent through hawala and reached al-Shabaab.
“The largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer.”
Somali migrant fraudsters allegedly stole upwards of $18 billion of American tax dollars.
Investigators found fraud across 14 Minnesota-run programs backed by roughly $18 billion in federal funds, and that half or more may have been stolen.
***** Previously Reported *****
Somali migrants move over $130 million in cash through Ohio airport , out of the country in a new money-laundering fraud scheme called the "Somali Suitcase Stash"
Federal Investigators say a sophisticated Somali network is taking hundreds of millions of dollars in cash, through the Columbus airport in Ohio, to the Middle East.
According to DHS, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents have flagged about $136 million in cash stuffed in suitcases, on its way out of John Glenn Columbus International Airport since November 2023.
The latest discovery appears to be a new arm of the Somali Migrant fraud industrial complex that now stretches into Maine and Ohio.
This comes after authorities in Minnesota found that $700 million in cash was carried through the Minneapolis airport over the past two years by Somali migrants who were taking it to the Middle east.
Authorities say the cash is what Somali migrants have stolen from American taxpayers through welfare, Medicaid, housing, autism, daycare, interpreter, transportation, adult daycare, and other fraud schemes in Democrat-run states.
The operation, described by officials as a "massive cash movement" involves Somali migrant couriers who declare the funds, then fly from Columbus to Minneapolis or Atlanta.
From there, the money is consolidated and sent overseas to Dubai, where U.S. tracking typically ends.
Investigators believe the cash is being stolen by Somalis in Somali communities across the Midwest, West, and South. They collect it and funnel it through the pipeline that exploits America's welfare system.
The amount of cash being funneled through the Minneapolis airport is 10 to 100 times higher than in larger US airports like New York or Atlanta.
$342.37 million was flagged in 2024 and $349.4 million in 2025.
Minneapolis stands out as a hotspot, because the state has the largest Somali migrant population and history of fraud.
Like Minnesota's multibillion-dollar welfare fraud scandal, which is estimated to be around $9 billion in stolen taxpayer dollars.
Federal prosecutors have indicted over 90 defendants, mostly Somali migrants with about half already convicted.
-Christina Aguayo News