Nearly $9 billion in taxpayer money was stolen from programs meant to feed children – and Tim Walz did nothing.
Now House Democrats just voted to make sure the people who robbed you can stay in the country.
What the top Democrat said on the House floor this week tells you everything you need to know about whose side they're on.
Democrats Vote Against Deporting Illegal Immigrants for Welfare Fraud
The House passed the Deporting Fraudsters Act on Wednesday, 231-186.
Every single "no" vote came from a Democrat.
Rep. Dave Taylor, R-Ohio, authored the bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act and make welfare fraud an explicit deportable offense. Under the measure, any noncitizen who admits to or is convicted of fraudulently receiving public benefits would be permanently removed from the country and barred from returning.
Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., put it plainly on the House floor: "If you admit to or you're convicted of fraudulently receiving public benefits, you are out of here on the next plane and can never return."
Simple. Logical. Exactly what you'd expect from anyone who actually represents American taxpayers.
The Democrats had a different view.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., dismissed the entire effort as "another week, another redundant and completely unnecessary immigration crime bill."
Redundant. That's what Raskin called a bill to deport people stealing from American families.
Raskin and his colleagues made a second argument – that the bill bypassed the criminal conviction requirement, allowing deportation before prosecutors secured a guilty verdict. Republicans shot that down immediately, pointing out that nothing in the legislation prevents criminal prosecution from proceeding alongside removal.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where it faces an uphill fight to reach the 60-vote threshold required for final passage.
The Minnesota Welfare Fraud Scandal Behind the Deporting Fraudsters Act
Democrats calling this bill "unnecessary" would be funny if the stakes weren't so serious.
Federal prosecutors in Minnesota are currently investigating nearly $9 billion in stolen taxpayer money – spread across 14 separate Medicaid-funded programs – with 92 people charged and 62 already convicted.
That scandal started with Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit that claimed to be distributing meals to children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the money went to luxury cars, foreign real estate, and wire transfers to banks in China and Somalia. Former U.S. Attorney Andy Luger called it one of the most extensive COVID-era relief fraud cases ever uncovered.
And Minnesota's fraud problem didn't start in 2021. As far back as 2018, investigators at the state's Department of Human Services were documenting organized kickback schemes in child care assistance programs – and raising alarms that were ignored for years.
Independent journalist Nick Shirley's viral December 2025 video showing allegedly empty daycare centers billing the state for hundreds of children prompted the Trump administration to freeze federal childcare funding to Minnesota and launch a new round of federal investigations.
FBI Director Kash Patel called what's already been uncovered "just the tip of a very large iceberg."
Tim Walz – who dropped his bid for a third gubernatorial term amid the scandal – spent years insisting his administration had the situation under control.
What Democrats' Vote Actually Tells You
This is not complicated.
Republicans passed a bill saying that if you come to America illegally, steal money meant for disabled children and low-income families, you get deported.
One hundred eighty-six Democrats voted no.
Jamie Raskin stood on the House floor and called protecting that standard "unnecessary."
Think about what that vote communicates – not just about immigration policy, but about whose side these politicians are actually on. When given a direct choice between deporting welfare fraudsters and protecting them from removal, House Democrats chose protection.
The Deporting Fraudsters Act may stall in the Senate. Democrats may run out the clock with procedural maneuvers. But 186 members of Congress just put their names on a roll call vote telling every American taxpayer exactly where their priorities lie.
Those roll call votes don't expire. They don't get walked back. And in November 2026, every one of those 186 Democrats will have to answer for them.
Sources:
- Adam Pack and Elizabeth Elkind, "Almost 200 House Dems vote against deporting people who commit welfare fraud," Fox News, March 18, 2026.
- Bryan Chai, "186 Democrats Kick and Scream as Critical Bill Targeting Fraudsters Narrowly Passes House," Western Journal, March 18, 2026.
- "Bill to deport welfare fraudsters passes in the House, but with nearly 200 Democrats opposing it," Just the News, March 18, 2026.
- "Senator with healthcare oversight demands probe of alleged Minnesota fraud," Fox News, December 29, 2025.
- "The Policy Lessons from Minnesota's Massive Welfare Fraud," American Enterprise Institute, December 23, 2025.
