Minnesota Childcare Fraud?
Reckless Accusation: How Nick Shirley’s Unverified Claims Weaponized Fraud Against an Entire Community
Conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley’s viral video alleging widespread fraud at Somali American-operated daycare centers in Minnesota represents a dangerous convergence of shoddy methodology, ethnic scapegoating, and politically motivated fearmongering that has already caused real harm to families nationwide.
The Unverified Allegations
Shirley’s 43-minute video claimed that daycare centers run by Somali Americans received millions in fraudulent payments without providing actual childcare services. The figures he cited—up to $3.6 million for a single center and more than $27 million since fiscal year 2020—came not from official investigations but from “David,” a Minneapolis local using research “done by people at the state capitol.” Snopes could not independently verify Shirley’s figures, nor whether the eight daycare centers featured had fraudulently received funds or were even run by Somali Americans. Minnesota DHS had not confirmed Shirley’s allegations at the time of reporting Snopes.
More damningly, CBS News conducted its own analysis of nearly a dozen daycare centers mentioned by Shirley and found that all but two have active licenses, all active locations were visited by state regulators within the last six months, with one subjected to an unannounced inspection as recently as December 4. CBS found dozens of citations related to safety and cleanliness violations, but there was no recorded evidence of fraud CBS News.
A Pattern of Targeting Immigrants
This is not Shirley’s first foray into inflammatory content. The Intercept reported that before alleging fraud in Minnesota’s Somali community, Shirley built a following with anti-immigrant clips. Despite his insistence that race and religion have nothing to do with his investigation, the YouTuber has a long track record of using his man-on-the-street videos to target immigrants in the U.S., platforming individuals who spread xenophobic and Islamophobic beliefs and conspiracy theories The Intercept.
University of Minnesota media law professor Jane Kirtley observed that many of today’s news influencers prioritize fearmongering over fact-checking. “They have a narrative, and they do everything they can to advance that narrative, but they seem to spend little to no time looking for the other side of the story, and that’s what good investigative journalism has to do,” NPR she said.
Methodological Failures
The video’s methodology was fundamentally flawed. One daycare manager said Shirley visited outside of regular hours, while a CNN camera crew interviewing Shirley outside a different center filmed caregivers dropping off their kids in the background—which he dismissed as “showing face” CBS News. Ibrahim Ali, manager of one center, told Fox News the video seemed to have been shot during off-hours, with the center open Monday through Thursday from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. “There is no fraud going on whatsoever,” he said. “Are you trying to record that we’re doing fraud, or are you trying to put the Somali name and the fraud in the same sentence? That’s what really hurt us the last couple of days” Fortune.
Politically Coordinated
The video wasn’t simply independent journalism gone wrong—it was politically orchestrated. Republican Minnesota lawmakers admitted steering Shirley and his researcher “David” to daycare sites for their viral report mediaite, revealing this as a coordinated political operation rather than genuine investigative reporting.
Conflating Separate Issues
While there have been legitimate fraud prosecutions in Minnesota—particularly the Feeding Our Future COVID-era scheme involving $250 million in fraudulent claims for meals never provided to children CBS News—Shirley’s video deliberately conflates unrelated cases to paint the entire Somali American community with a broad brush of criminality.
Former U.S. Attorney Andy Luger, who prosecuted the Feeding Our Future case, stated clearly: “The vast majority of the money that these folks made went to spending on luxury items for themselves. There was never any evidence that this money went to fund terrorism nor was there any evidence that was the intent of the 70 people we indicted” CBS News—directly contradicting the inflammatory terrorism allegations being circulated.
Devastating Real-World Consequences
The impact of Shirley’s unverified allegations has been swift and severe:
- HHS froze child care payments to all states, requiring additional verification that could delay crucial support for low-income families nationwide ABC News
- Minnesota’s $185 million in frozen federal funds subsidizes childcare for low-income families across the entire state Al Jazeera
- Somali daycare providers in other states, including Washington, are now being harassed and accused of fraud with little to no fact-checking CNN
Targeting a Vulnerable Community
Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the United States, with over 100,000 people. They’re police officers, teachers—a handful are criminals, but the video paints the entire community with a very broad brush PBS.
Ahmed Samatar, a Somali professor at Macalester College who has lived in Minnesota for over 30 years, warned that the consequences could be frightening for many Somalis, especially young people “who would think that they were born here, they’re living the life of a normal citizen, going to school and getting along with life, and therefore should now have to watch their back all the time because they are targeted as an unwanted foreign group of people” PBS.
As Jaylani Hussein, executive director of CAIR’s Minnesota chapter, noted: “The Somali community in the Twin Cities is overwhelmingly made up of hardworking families, small business owners, healthcare workers, students, and taxpayers who contribute every day to Minnesota’s economy and civic life” CNN.
The Bottom Line
Nick Shirley’s video is not investigative journalism—it’s ethnic profiling dressed up as activism. By visiting businesses during off-hours, ignoring contradictory evidence, relying on unverified sources, and working in coordination with partisan political actors, Shirley created a hit piece that has already harmed innocent families across America while providing no credible evidence of the specific fraud he alleges.
Real fraud should be investigated and prosecuted through proper legal channels with due process—as Minnesota authorities have been doing for years. What Shirley has done instead is weaponize the legitimate work of prosecutors to justify collective punishment of an immigrant community, playing directly into a broader Trump administration campaign of demonization and deportation.
The Somali American community deserves better. Low-income families who depend on childcare assistance deserve better. And the American public deserves actual journalism, not politically motivated propaganda that trades in xenophobia and unverified accusations.