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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

Because of the fraud scandal and the concentration of cases among the Somali community there (that those people are generally citizens and not immigrants or refugees is besides the point to the administration). The MN fraud story is a huge big deal in conservative media.

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And the ringleader of the fraud was a white woman who is awaiting sentencing, but they ignore that part

That was just one case. There's a lot of other decentralized fraud that had nothing to do with that person.

What other fraud? The Feeding Our Future fraud is the biggest case and they got caught and prosecuted. 80 people have been convicted

Out of the 78 convicted, 77 were of Somali or African descent. So saying the ringleader was white doesn't discount or minimize that fact.

Yes it does, when she was the one recruiting people to participate.

Are you suggesting there is something inherent to being Somali that means they are more likely to commit fraud?

The fact that she's awaiting sentencing suggests they didn't ignore her as much as she may have liked.

Is fraud legal for citizens? (Since you brought it up as a point)

No, but the premise of the ICE/CBP flood to MN is that the fraud is being conducted by deportable people. Note that ICE/CBP has no statutory authority to enforce fraud laws.

My understanding is that the "flood" is due to the state not assisting and arguably impeding ICE, vs states like Florida where the state is cooperating so they don't need as much ICE to do the work. It sounds like the fraud is being used as a red herring by detractors.

AFAIK, committing fraud does not protect illegal immigrants from deportation, which seems to be the implied conclusion here. If ICE deports illegal immigrants who are also committing fraud, I can't see how that is a minus rather than a plus.

Nobody claimed that "committing fraud protects illegal immigrants from deportation", and I don't understand how that even makes sense.

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