We continue our reporting on the record fraud in Minnesota. A whistleblower told us she saw gaping holes in the state’s checks and balances but was retaliated against when she flagged them. The vast majority of those committing the fraud are Somali. But on our visit to Minneapolis, other members of America’s largest Somali community told us they’ve been unfairly blamed in the scandal.

The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

Jamal Osman: Over 10,000 people live in this neighborhood. They call this home. This is a cultural mall.

Jamal Osman arrived in the U.S. from Somalia as a refugee at age 14. Today he’s on the Minneapolis City Council.

Osman: As you can see, a lot of stores are closed because people are afraid of coming out and talking to, doing their business because they’re afraid of ICE.

While at the mall, Abdikarim Elmi approached Osman to complain that innocent residents are bearing the brunt of blame for what criminals have done. He’s now ready to produce his U.S. passport upon request.

Osman: You carry your passport around?

Abdikarim Elmi: Every day. I’ve been here 29 years. I’m carrying this every single day. Our kids are born here and we have, we came as refugees. And then we became refugees. U.S. government brought us over here.

Osman: We’re grateful.

Sharyl: Legally?

Elmi: Legally. As a refugees. We appreciate. We came here. And now, you’re saying we are ‘garbage.’ ‘You need to go back where you came from.’ Does that make sense?

Sharyl: To be clear, you don’t support any alleged fraud. You support doing something about that?

Osman: Absolutely. I think they state handled it very well. Once they figured it out, that there was wrongdoing, they took the right steps to do it. Fraud is the brush they’re trying to use to justify racism, xenophobia and, you know, Islamophobia to attack this community.

Elmi: Every community has some good people, bad people, corruption people, right? There’s a law in this country, right?

Osman: There’s a due process.

Elmi: Due process. Put them in jail. Do the process. But don’t shame a whole community. Everywhere we went on our visit, residents described feeling unfairly targeted. Kamaro Ali owns a grocery store in the section of Minneapolis nicknamed Little Mogadishu after Somalia’s Capital City.

She says she considers two ICE protesters who were killed in clashes with federal agents to be heroes.

Kamaro Ali: We cry for the one who die, the one who left. They never come back. That’s, that’s very hard, you know?

Osman: It’s so difficult.

Ali: They never come back. Because their children waiting. Their families waiting, they never come back.

Today, Minnesotans are struggling to prosecute the fraud, eliminate gaps, and put the whole public disaster behind them.

Minnesota state Whistleblower Faye Bernstein says the fault for the scandals and fallout ultimately lies with the state officials who ignored all of the obvious warning signs for so long. And punished those drawing attention to them.

Sharyl: What is the lessons to be taken away from your experience?

Bernstein: Employees who do this work every day, not just me, but many employees who do this work every day know, when, when we’re doing something risky, you just have to listen to them. The retaliation puts such a chill on anybody speaking again.

Sharyl (on-camera): For more on this story, check out my podcast Full Measure After Hours.

Watch the video here.

The post (WATCH) Minneapolis Fraud: Part 2 appeared first on Sharyl Attkisson.

 

IPAK-EDU is grateful to Sharyl Attkisson as this piece was originally published there and is included in this news feed with mutual agreement. Read More