Readers Write: Fraud allegations keep flying

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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On Monday, the public’s xenophobic outrage from an unethical YouTuber sharing unfounded accusations of fraud emboldened President Donald Trump to pledge to cut federal funds to the state of Minnesota, a move that could cause the child care sector to collapse (“Threatened child care aid freeze imperils thousands,” Jan. 2).

Child care directors, teachers and parents are panicked. I know this viscerally as the director of a child care center in St. Paul. I know how hard it is to balance the budget and make payroll. Child care is a failed market system: Parents can’t afford the true cost of care and average profits are 1% nationally. Child care is a sector already under duress, with established child care centers closing at increasing rates. The federal administration cutting $185 million of public funding would financially strain many centers beyond viability. You can expect centers to start closing as soon as February.

Closures will affect families, businesses and the economy — child care is the work behind the workforce.

Cutting funding punishes the innocent, most grievously children who are poor. The 23,000 children receiving child care assistance in Minnesota will not get the care they need and deserve. It will prevent kindergarten readiness, cause parents to become jobless and render families unhoused. The future of our state has dimmed. You can expect an increase in crime rates and a reduction in third-grade reading levels.

Cutting child care funding is a punishment that is unfair, illogical and harmful. Equally scary, I imagine Minnesota will be the first but not the last to have child care funding axed. Remember, we have their playbook. Project 2025 wants to push women out of the workforce, and what better way to achieve that than to sabotage the child care sector?

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In regard to the video produced by “right-wing influencer” Nick Shirley trying to get the goods on Somali day care centers: I wish to point out one thing that nothing I’ve read so far has mentioned.

Disregarding whether fraud was or wasn’t committed, I find it odd that some people seem to think it’s suspicious that he was denied entry to these child care facilities when he showed up unannounced, with no credentials and no valid reason to be there. Um, these are child care centers — they exist to keep young children safe. No one who is not an employee or a parent/custodian of a child being cared for there should be allowed in. Two strangers with a camera crew? Absolutely not. The only businesses that should lose their licenses over this are the ones who did let them in.

I could go on about much more absurdity, but I want to keep this short.

Peter Sandberg, Minneapolis

Please allow me to attempt a thought exercise to see if I have the Republican thought process understood.

Medical facilities receive taxpayer dollars via Medicaid assistance to their patients. If I were angry about this and I drove by a clinic at a time when they were closed and filmed the empty lot and locked doors, this proves fraud?

If I went to a different clinic and they were open and I demanded to see patient files that they refused to show me, that would also be proof of fraud?

If I went to a pediatrician’s office during business hours and started filming the children in the room until I was thrown out ... that’s definitely also fraud but not an invasion of children’s privacy or a sign that I’m some sort of creep?

And above all else, everything is obviously the fault of Gov. Tim Walz and no one in the nearly equally split Legislature. This much I know for certain, for President Donald Trump tells me so.

Adam Skoglund, Eden Prairie

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House Speaker Lisa Demuth continues to fail at leading.

First, she’s discussed toning down the rhetoric, but she dodged questions about the dangerous comments directed at our Somali communities.

Now she credits her caucus for inviting a biased social media influencer to Minnesota day care centers. This isn’t a real investigation. Picture finding out men with cameras were demanding to enter your children’s day care center and demanding to film them.

Did she consider the safety impacts this might cause day care centers, or did she not care? Either way, it showed a lack of judgment, and it’s a question she should answer.

In a state that has experienced political violence and school shootings, Demuth chose to unleash a social media mob for political points.

She’s in a position where she can investigate fraud and strengthen oversight using the power of the state government. This was an opportunity to lead and get bipartisan support and solutions.

We all lose with this. Imagine what state politicians could accomplish if they were more concerned about solutions and working together instead of their political careers and flashy social media sound bites.

We can do better than this. It’s time for politicians to work together and end their games, or they should resign.

I am appalled and alarmed by the conversation around the alleged fraud in Minnesota. There is no doubt that there have been some who took advantage of the pandemic-era subsidies. Anyone who misused the money should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

However, it is wrong to consider all of our Somali neighbors guilty. That is how they are now being treated. A handful of people guilty of such a crime does not mean all Somalis are guilty, or even to be suspected.

I am pastor at Trinity Lutheran Congregation in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. The people of Trinity and I have worked closely with many of the people who live and work here. We have shared meals with them, laughed with them, served our neighborhood with them and sometimes even prayed with them. We wish each other merry Christmas and happy Ramadan. Our respect for each other runs deep and our commitment to working together as Muslims and Christians is strong.

For Christians this is a season of joy and hope. We remember the birth of Jesus and the new life he brought. For Christians, Christmas is about far more than a baby born in the Middle East. A baby whose family were refugees themselves. It is about learning to live the life he lived, a life of peace, welcoming the marginalized, healing the sick and feeding the hungry.

The streets of Cedar-Riverside are quiet these days. Businesses are suffering. People are afraid. Yet life goes on. It has to. People need to shop, eat, gather with family and friends and, yes, pray.

Jane Buckley-Farlee, Minneapolis