Federal agents return to Minneapolis to target daycares for suspected fraud
About 20 sites in the Minneapolis area were were targeted as prosecutors refocus attention on a billion-dollar social services scandal.
Updated on: April 28, 2026 / 11:49 AM EDT / CBS News
Teams of federal agents once again swarmed sections of Minneapolis early Tuesday morning, multiple officials confirmed to CBS News, exercising search warrants at about 20 childcare centers for suspected fraud.
No one was arrested in the raids — a stark contrast from last winter's immigration crackdown during Operation Metro Surge — but the sweeping law enforcement activity did appear to signal a refocused effort on the part of federal authorities to investigate the billion-dollar COVID-era fraud schemes in Minnesota that had once drawn the Trump administration's attention and ire.
"Today the FBI with federal, state and local law enforcement is involved in court-authorized law enforcement activity as part of an ongoing fraud investigation," a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday.
"If you commit fraud in Minnesota you're going to get caught — and that's exactly what we saw today," Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, said in a statement. "We catch criminals when state and federal agencies share information. Joint investigations work, and securing justice depends on it."
Since 2021, 92 people have been charged in the schemes, with 67 convicted, including five people who pleaded guilty last month for their roles in the Feeding Our Future scandal that exploited a federal nutrition program.