Hennepin County shut down a $2 million program that reimbursed businesses claiming losses from ICE Operation Metro Surge after staff confirmed only 82 of roughly 300 applications. The operation started in December and produced more than 4,000 arrests of illegal migrants statewide.

Reviewers found false addresses, identical AI-written text reused across filings, and listed firms that could not be located. Commissioner Jeffrey Lunde said people still applied despite earlier fraud because they expected no consequences, and the county stopped work once verification kept failing.

The state has also seen the Feeding Our Future case of about $250 million with dozens of arrests and convictions, plus other Justice Department prosecutions of separate schemes that wasted hundreds of millions in tax money.