Tim Walz just sat before Congress and answered for $9 billion in Somali welfare fraud.
Nobody asked where the money went after it left Minnesota.
A Somali lawmaker just handed Congress evidence of what that money actually bought – and they won't return his calls.
Somali Government Officials Are Running a Human Trafficking Pipeline Into the US
Abdillahi Hashi Abib is a sitting member of Somalia's Parliament and Foreign Affairs Committee.
In February, he sent confidential letters to the House Oversight Committee detailing how Somali nationals – including dual U.S.-Somali citizens holding diplomatic immunity – are using their government positions to traffic people into America, Britain, and the EU.
More than 6,900 Somali nationals were moved through the pipeline over five months, the letters allege.
That includes children.
It also includes people tied to al-Shabaab – al-Qaeda's largest and wealthiest affiliate, which has killed more American citizens since 2014 than any other al-Qaeda branch.
The letters name names.
Hinda Culusow – alleged U.S. citizen and chief of protocol for the Somali president – and her husband, a sitting Somali parliamentarian, allegedly control a travel agency that serves as the operation's logistics hub.
Three receipts – $1,320, $330, and $450 – allegedly document clients routed through Egypt before reaching Western nations, with fees sent to Culusow and her husband.
Abib also alleges that Somali State Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Mohamed Omar coordinated with his brother-in-law, Somalia's ambassador to Cuba, to sell Cuban government scholarships – used as cover to move people toward the U.S. border.
Somalia's Minister of Education is named as a participant.
This is a Somali government backed operation.
How the Somalia Child Trafficking Network Turns Kids Into Ransom Hostages
Families in drought-ravaged Somalia get a visit from government-connected recruiters with a simple pitch: hand over your children and we'll get them to the West, all expenses paid.
The children vanish.
Then come the video calls – kids held in Libya, parents told to wire the full $25,000 or never see them again.
With Somalia's GDP per capita sitting at roughly $600 a year, almost no family can raise $25,000 on short notice.
Children who can't be ransomed don't come home.
Abib sent the Daily Caller a ransom photo – two children photographed during an active ransom negotiation.
He described it as a sample.
He told the committee he has records, visa and passport data, financial transaction pathways, witness testimony, parental testimony, and identifying details including names, dates, and routing mechanisms – all ready to hand over.
The committee has not followed up.
The House Oversight Committee Minnesota Fraud Probe Is Missing the Bigger Story
The House Oversight Committee spent months laser-focused on Tim Walz and billions in welfare fraud.
Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison were questioned under oath on March 4.
Witnesses confirmed that Minnesota tax dollars reached al-Shabaab.
But Abib was simultaneously trying to hand them evidence that the problem doesn't start in Minneapolis – it starts in Mogadishu.
Abib told the Caller that Trump's administration is treating the root cause like a bandage situation, focused on fraud symptoms in Minnesota while ignoring the Somali government apparatus running the trafficking operation behind it.
The pattern is not new.
In 2010, a Virginia man named Anthony Joseph Tracy pleaded guilty to helping move 272 Somali nationals into the U.S. illegally – routing them through Kenya and Cuba before crossing the southern border.
That same year, the FBI confirmed al-Shabaab was actively recruiting Somali-Americans from Minnesota.
In 2024, a confirmed al-Shabaab member crossed the southern border near San Diego and was released – then roamed free for nearly a year before ICE picked him up in Minneapolis.
The pipeline has never stopped running.
Marco Rubio Has the Evidence and the House Oversight Committee Has Gone Silent
The State Department told the Daily Caller it stands ready to support Trump's war on fraud.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was carbon copied on Abib's letters.
The Oversight Committee has not responded.
Abib's ask is straightforward: independent verification of his evidence, targeted sanctions on the named officials, removal of corrupt Somali leadership, and whistleblower protections for sources inside Somali intelligence structures.
He sent the documents. Nobody in Washington has bothered to read them.
Somali government officials with American passports are allegedly selling children into Libyan ransom traps while trafficking al-Shabaab members toward the U.S. border – and the committee that spent three months on Somali fraud in Minnesota hasn't called him back.
Sources:
- Derek VanBuskirk, "Exclusive: Somali Lawmaker Shares How US Pays The Price Of Somali Terror And Trafficking," The Daily Caller, March 5, 2026.
- "Exclusive: Terrorist Caught Illegally Crossing The Border Was Allowed To Roam Free For Nearly A Year, Memo Says," The Daily Caller, February 1, 2024.
- "Chairman Comer Widens Investigation into Fraud in Minnesota's Social Services Programs," House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, January 23, 2026.
- "Hearing Wrap Up: Minnesota Governor Walz and Attorney General Ellison Ignored Rampant Taxpayer Fraud and Silenced State Whistleblowers," House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, January 7, 2026.
- Rep. Brandon Gill, "Rep. Gill Exposes Somali Fraud Scandal in Oversight Committee," gill.house.gov, January 8, 2026.
- "2025 Trafficking in Persons Report: Somalia," U.S. Department of State, September 30, 2025.