CNN’s Boris Sanchez Presses Republican Lawmaker on GOP Focus on Somali Fraud Cases: ‘People Across All Cultures Commit Fraud’

CNN anchor Boris Sanchez was curious why Republican lawmakers are focused on Somali fraud cases, considering, as he put it, “people across all cultures commit fraud.”

Sanchez looked for an answer to the recent uproar when Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) joined him on CNN News Central on Wednesday.

“I mean, we’re both from Florida. I’m sure you saw a lot of COVID-19 fraud done by people of all races, of all genders, of all faiths,” Sanchez said. “Why specifically Somalians?”

Fine said the answer is simple — the “size and scope” of the fraud has made it impossible to ignore. He continued:

This is up to $8 billion from a group of people that came to the country — almost a huge percentage went on to welfare immediately. A large amount of immigration fraud. And again, from a country that was not well managed.

When we have immigration in this country, it should be from people who love the country, want to assimilate, do not want free stuff and want to add value. And that’s not what you can say with those Somalian immigrants.

Immigration without assimilation, without assimilation is invasion, and that’s a lot of what we’ve seen in Minneapolis.

Sanchez did not seem to buy that logic.

He followed up and asked, “Wasn’t the country founded on the premise that you could come here, irrespective of what your beliefs are, and if you’re a law-abiding person, found [sic] a good life, create a good life?”

He continued, saying Somalis have “provided an enormous economic boost” to Minneapolis and Minnesota.

“Do you not see how some of what you’re saying offends those people?” Sanchez asked.

“Absolutely,” Fine said. “But immigration to this country was not supposed to be a free check to get all the welfare that you want.”

Fine added he had filed a bill to make it illegal for any immigrants — legal or illegal — to receive government benefits. He said his ancestors agreed to a similar deal when they came to the U.S.

Their back-and-forth comes after The New York Times reported some Somalis living in Minnesota orchestrated a fraud scheme that, according to federal prosecutors, stole “more than $1 billion in taxpayers’ money.”

Fox News reporter Garrett Tenney later reported that several whistleblowers “believe the total amount of fraud could reach more than $8 billion.”

Those reports spurred President Donald Trump to rip Somalis living in the U.S., and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in particular. The president said he did not want more Somalis like Omar coming to the U.S., because most of them were “ripping off” the American taxpayer.

He also called Omar “garbage,” an anti-Semite, and a “terrible person.”

The two have continued exchanging barbs in recent days, with Omar calling the president a “national embarrassment.” 

Earlier in the interview, Sanchez asked Fine if he was comfortable with Trump calling Somalia “filthy”; he also asked Fine if he was ok with Trump not wanting immigrants from “sh*thole countries,” and instead wanting to bring in some people from places like Norway and Sweden.

“I wonder if you’re comfortable with a hierarchy of which nationalities and races belong or do not belong in this country?”

Fine said he was not, and the president wasn’t, either.

“Not all cultures are equal, and not all countries are equal. There are some people who come to this country to add value, and there are some who come to take value,” he said.

Watch Sanchez and Fine above.