Exclusive | Homeland Security bringing in more agencies to root out Minneapolis fraud — and is rethinking future lodging after Hilton snafu

Homeland Security’s mass-scale operation in Minneapolis has netted over 300 criminal migrants in the last two days as thousands of immigration authorities descend on the Twin Cities for an unprecedented multi-agency crackdown — with more on the way.

Amid an unprecedented human services fraud scandal, DHS has deployed over 2,000 agents in Minneapolis, including HSI, ICE, and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the “largest footprint” federal immigration authorities have had in the region since President Trump’s inauguration.

“Since just after Thanksgiving, ICE has arrested over 1,300 in Minneapolis alone, and there are about 300 Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents on the ground looking into the fraud. We had over 150 arrests today and 174 yesterday,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin told The Post.

McLaughlin said soon Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) would be joining the effort to root out the fraudsters and send criminal migrants packing.

“I think Americans are seeing this and their blood is boiling. They want accountability, they want to know what happened to their tax dollars,” she said.

“They want to know if people are breaking our laws and in our country illegally. They want justice, and they want to get them out of the country,” she said.

“It’s going to be a prolonged operation but we’re working rapidly. We want this to be as efficient as possible, and that’s why you’re seeing the numbers of men and women on the ground.”

In a flurry of investigation activity in September, DHS determined nearly half of all immigrants in Minneapolis-St. Paul were found to have committed some form of immigration fraud.

“Officers encountered blatant marriage fraud, visa overstay, people claiming to work as businesses that can’t be found, forged documents, abuse of the H1B visa system, abuse of the F1 visa, and many other discrepancies,” US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) director Joseph B. Edlow told reporters after announcing the bombshell revelation.

Last month, a massive fraud scandal involving Minnesota’s human services programs started getting national attention as crooks made off with at least $1 billion in taxpayer dollars meant to support the state’s generous social safety net programs.

First Assistant US Attorney Joe Thompson Warns that the total amount defrauded could exceed $9 billion. The House Oversight Committee will be holding a hearing on the scandal Wednesday.

Of the 98 charged in the scheme so far, at least 80 have been Somali immigrants, one of Minneapolis’ largest ethnic groups, drawing increased scrutiny on the community that runs many day care centers in the Twin Cities.

Those childcare centers have come under fire themselves, with serious questions raised about whether they’re actually delivering the services they’re paid millions of dollars by the state to provide.

Health and Human Services recently announced it was freezing federal payments to Minnesota child services unless funding requests are proven legitimate ahead of time.

The beefed up enforcement regime is a critical part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, of which DHS is at the tip of the spear.

As for the agency’s message to fraudsters, McLaughlin didn’t mince words.

“We’ll find you, and you’ll answer to the American justice system. We’re not gonna turn a blind eye like so many of these republicans we’ve seen for the last four years, even the governor himself and other politicians who were either complicit or culpable in this grand scheme,” she said.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was poised to sail to re-election for a historic third term until stunningly dropping his bid for reelection last week, in part under the weight of the fraud scandal and questions about what he knew and when.

This week, DHS and ICE agents were told by the Hampton Inn by Hilton in Lakeville that they weren’t welcome, and had their reservations abruptly canceled when the operator found the reservations were made for immigration authorities.

Hilton has since cut ties with the independently operated property, which reneged on its promise to honor the agents’ reservations after widespread outcry.

McLaughlin said the agencies were considering looking elsewhere when making accommodations moving forward.

“It’s certainly something we’re looking at. These men and women are doing 18-20 hour days, they’re away from their families often, if they’re staying in a hotel they sure are. This is discriminatory, it’s un-American,” she said, praising the global hospitality brand for ditching the rogue operator.

“But I think that’s just the first step and they can go farther and should do more.”