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Former Minnesota Viking and University of Minnesota football player. Jack Brewer said he saw up close a high-end business involving the “elite” Somali population in Minnesota. In the process, he witnessed a demographic and class transformation in his home state.
“You go to one of them and they have a Bentley and Maserati dealerships in Minnesota. I know this because I did business with them and they endorsed me as an athlete,” Brewer told Fox News Digital.
“Now you go there and some of their main customers are these Somali scammers buying expensive cars in a state that has four months of sunshine and good weather. They drive around in sports cars like you might see in Beverly Hills or South Beach Miami, all at the expense of American taxpayers.”
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Images of empty kindergartens suddenly became a cultural focal point across the country. Minnesota is embroiled in a growing scandal after it was revealed that potentially billions of taxpayer dollars were fraudulently distributed through the state's Somali population.
Brewer remembers the moment he began to see reality take shape when, 28 years ago, Somalia's population suddenly began to skyrocket throughout his state. He witnessed this as the husband of a legal Muslim American immigrant.
“I've lived in Minnesota for a long time. My wife was born and raised there, the son of immigrants who came from the Middle East, came to America, assimilated and not only assimilated, but actually made me more patriotic,” Brewer said.
INSIDE 'LITTLE MOGADISHU': SOMALIA IN MINNESOTA UNDER A CLOUD OF FRAUD
“I saw Somalis coming there in droves. They had their own part of the city, and they gradually began to take over the city of Minneapolis.”
The Somali population in Minneapolis and St. Paul grew significantly starting in the early to mid-1990s with refugees fleeing the Somali Civil War, with significant numbers arriving after 1991 and continuing into the 2000s.
The collapse of Somalia's government in 1991 led to widespread conflict, forcing millions of people to flee the country. At the time, Brewer was just a child in Grapevine, Texas. By the time he transferred from SMU to the University of Minnesota, Somalia's population was estimated at about 15,000, according to Minnesota State Demographic Center.
By the time Brewer joined the Minnesota Vikings in 2002, at least 5,123 Minnesota students reported speaking Somali as their primary language at home, according to National Institutes of Health.
Over the years, Brewer, as a credentialed professional athlete, has witnessed deals involving local Somali immigrants making a fortune. He witnessed their growing influence on local culture and religion.
“You turn on the TV. Have you ever seen a mayor on television waving a foreign flag, dancing and trying to rally people to support Somalia rather than support America? … When you walk through Minneapolis, you hear Islamic sirens going off because they came here with this culture, trying to bring Islamic culture,” Brewer said.
“This is a spiritual battle like we haven’t seen in a long time.”
A recent investigation Activists Ryan Thorpe and Christopher F. Rufo discovered that federal counterterrorism sources confirmed that millions of funds for Minnesota's Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program, Feeding Our Future and other government-sponsored organizations were sent to Somalia, and that the terrorist group al-Shabab may have received the money.
Approximately 40% of households in Somalia receive remittances from abroad. Thorpe and Rufo reported that the Somali diaspora sent $1.7 billion into the country in 2023, exceeding the Somali government's budget that year.
In the Land of 1000 Lakes, political power and welfare funds found their way to the people of Somalia.
The state has produced several prominent Somali politicians, including U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, state senators Omar Fateh and Zainab Mohamed, and St. Louis Park Mayor Nadia Mohamed, all Democrats.
“These people have infiltrated the political world where they are now using the federal government to fund their campaigns, send money overseas to Somalia, build luxury apartments and create a lifestyle for people in Somalia at the expense of American taxpayers,” Brewer said.
“For me, as a former Minnesota Viking and former Gopher, I received my bachelor's degree and master's degree from the University of Minnesota. I was captain of both of these teams. This is one of the most embarrassing moments I have ever had for the staff that I am proud to say helped transform me from a boy to a man.”
Brewer, the business owner, added that he has moved many of his assets out of state in recent years.
“I've given up a lot of my investment interests in the state and moved business interests elsewhere because of what we saw after George Floyd,” he said.
Residents of Somalia previously told Fox News Digital they are angry that the entire community is saddled with what they say is an unfair reputation, blaming a small minority of scammers and criminals for negative attention on the entire group.
“The Somalis in Minnesota are hardworking people. Many of them work two jobs, but about 75% are still poor,” Jailani Hussein, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) of Minnesota. previously told Fox News Digital.
“There are entrepreneurs, successful restaurants, people in trucking, information technology and even corporate America who are making significant changes. But these positive stories don’t get much attention.”
About 36% of Minnesota Somali residents lived below the poverty line from 2019 to 2023, more than three times the U.S. poverty rate of 11.1%, according to the data. Minnesota Compassstatewide data project. Somali-headed households reported an average income of about US$43,600 during this period, well below the national average income of US$78,538.
Najma Mohammad, a hair stylist who came to the United States as a child, previously told Fox News Digital“Most people think that just because some people are bad and Somali, every Somali is bad and that's just a stereotype.”
Brewer supports the state's patriotic legal Muslim immigrants, with whom he is personally connected through his wife's family.
“Watching their family—how they do business, how they love this country, what they stand for, their patriotism—I learned a lesson from that. Thanks to this I became a better person. I fell in love with my country even more by watching my relatives. So, I know what’s possible,” Brewer said.
“They did this by moving to Minneapolis and building their business. It can happen and it does happen. This is what this country was built on.”
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But he also wants President Trump to take decisive action in response to recent events.
“I would freeze all immigration until we understand the depth of this fraud and the depth of corruption that is taking place.” Brewer said. “We need to get all these foreign terrorists out of our country. It must be a collective effort by our military, our local law enforcement, our communities, our leaders, our churches—everyone—to protect our land.”
Fox News Digital's Michael Dorgan and Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.
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