Hennepin County, Minnesota has ended a $2 million relief program meant to help businesses hurt by a large federal immigration enforcement operation after officials say fraud overwhelmed the effort.
The county board had approved the fund to support businesses affected by Operation Metro Surge, a federal immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota that began in December 2025. The county received roughly 300 applications for assistance but distributed only about $500,000 to 82 applicants before halting the program. More than 200 applications were flagged for potential fraud, according to local reports.
Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Lunde described the pattern of suspect applications, saying many contained false information that appeared to be generated by artificial intelligence and then copied and submitted for multiple businesses. County officials who conducted site visits found that some of the businesses seeking money did not actually exist.
“The fact that people, after all this fraud, felt that they could apply and get away with it, I think it’s a problem because clearly there’s no fear out there,” Lunde said, according to Kare 11. “Until we get it where people fear things, then they’re gonna keep doing it.”
Lunde said the county eventually decided the program could not continue as designed.
“Then at a certain point we’re like, ‘OK, we’re getting declining results on that.’ And so we said it’s time to stop the program. So we just stopped processing at that point,” he said.
Lunde characterized the applications as overwhelmingly fraudulent.
The shutdown adds to a string of fraud cases tied to Minnesota government assistance programs. Members of the state’s Somali community have been accused, and in some instances convicted, of using nonexistent or inactive businesses and nonprofits to draw money from programs meant to help the needy.
Operation Metro Surge itself has drawn national scrutiny after federal agents fatally shot U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, has said addressing the fraud is his “responsibility to fix it” and has said “any amount of fraud is too much and undermines the very programs that do so much to raise our quality of life.” He has also pushed back against efforts to blame the state’s Somali community broadly, writing in a December 2025 op-ed that “what is not helpful is the president of the United States demonizing an entire community.”
Hennepin County and Walz’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
