City Journal (Manhattan Institute) published last month an investigative report by Ryan Thorpe and Christopher Rufo about Covid-related welfare fraud in Minnesota. The welfare turns out to be centered in the state’s Somali community. According to Jason L. Riley at the WSJ, Federal prosecutors have charged dozens of people with setting up fictitious nonprofits that billed state agencies for services that were never provided.

More than $1 billion was stolen. Instead of being used to provide housing or Medicaid services, “the money was being used to fund lavish lifestyles, purchase luxury vehicles, and buy real estate.”

According to the NYT: “Minnesota’s fraud scandal stood out even in the context of rampant theft during the pandemic, when Americans stole tens of billions through unemployment benefits, business loans and other forms of aid.”

So far, 59 people have been convicted, most of whom are of Somali descent.

Of those charged in the cases involving alleged fraud against meals, housing and autism programs, 78 of the 86 defendants are of Somali ancestry. Since the 1990s, when civil war broke out in the East African nation, Minnesota has welcomed tens of thousands of Somali refugees. Today the state’s Somali diaspora numbers about 80,000.

An Open Secret 

Merrick Garland, Joe Biden’s U.S. attorney general, called it the largest pandemic-relief hustle in the nation.

Democratic state officials also suspected wrongdoing but didn’t want to upset an important voting bloc or be accused of racism.

According to a former state senator:

“The media does not want to put a light on this. And if you’re a politician, it’s a significant disadvantage for you to alienate the Somali community. If you don’t win the Somali community, you can’t win Minneapolis. And if you don’t win Minneapolis, you can’t win the state.”

Terrified by Accusations of Racism

Criticism is being hurled Mr. Rufo’s way. Now there are accusations of “racist” reporting. Apparently, continues Mr. Riley, “no one is supposed to notice that Minnesota’s welfare fraud was heavily concentrated among people who are relatively new to the country and share an ethnic identity. “

“A description of the facts,” Mr. Rufo wrote, “should not be measured as ‘racist or not racist,’ but rather as ‘true or not true.’ And in this case, the truth is that numerous members of a relatively small community participated in a scheme that stole billions in funds.”

According to Ahmed Samatar, an expert on Somali culture at Macalester College, many Somali refugees were raised in a culture where stealing from the government was common, and a reckoning over the fraud was overdue.

Somalis were not the first migrant group to arrive in America with unwelcome cultural baggage, clarifies Mr. Riley.

In the early 1900s, crime was so prevalent in New York’s Jewish and Italian neighborhoods that a specialized detective force was established. “Among the most expert of all the street thieves are the Hebrew boys under 16,” the city’s police commissioner wrote. “Forty percent of the boys at the House of Refuge and 27 percent of those arraigned in the Children’s Court, [are] of that race.”

Chinese migrants arrived in California during the mid-1800s Gold Rush. A reputation for poor hygiene, prostitution, gambling, and other behavior fanned anti-Chinese sentiment.

Following the massive influx of Irish immigrants, beginning around the same time, it was hard not to notice that cholera, tuberculosis and alcoholism disproportionately plagued Irish communities.

Jason Riley notes that these accusations weren’t merely negative perceptions or ugly stereotypes. Fortunately, he notes, these groups were willing to face reality.

The Chinese and Irish formed benevolent societies to help new arrivals assimilate. Jewish leaders in New York established the Bureau of Social Morals and worked with police to address the crime problem. According to historian Howard Sachar, “By the 1920s, ‘Jews’ and ‘criminality’ ceased to be interchangeable terms in the public vernacular.”

“A description of the facts,” Mr. Rufo wrote, “should not be measured as ‘racist or not racist,’ but rather as ‘true or not true.’ And in this case, the truth is that numerous members of a relatively small community participated in a scheme that stole billions in funds.”

“In other words, cultures can adapt,” suggests Mr. Riley, before reminding readers that it will require substantiating the problem rather than snubbing it or pretending that anyone who speaks out is acting in bad faith.