The Minneapolis Star Tribune, for example, claimed the fraud price tag touted by federal prosecutors is totally inaccurate: Members of the Somali diaspora likely stole only $152 million, the paper huffed — before acknowledging that the total amount “is expected to grow as ongoing state and federal investigations into the state programs continue.”

Let’s extrapolate the numbers: The US Census reports about 107,000 people of Somali descent in Minnesota; if we’re generous and say that each one of them pays taxes, their per-capita state and local tax contribution is about $630.

Yet the average Minnesota taxpayer paid roughly $8,050 in state and local taxes in 2024 — and sent $16,044 to the... See more