The Bishop of the Minneapolis Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the Reverend Jen Nagel, has released a statement, “For the Dignity of Our Neighbors,’ defending Somali immigrants and criticizing ICE amid the backdrop of the Minnesota Frand Scandal.
The Minnesota fraud scandals, primarily the Feeding Our Future case, involve the theft of approximately $300 million (with broader losses estimated to be nearly $1 billion) from federal child nutrition and social service programs during the COVID-19 era through fake meal sites, shell companies, and fraudulent claims. Furthermore, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson recently speculated that fraud found in Minnesota-run Medicaid and social service programs since 2018 could exceed $9 billion. So far, nearly all the suspected fraudsters are Somali.
This scandal prompted Trump to direct his ire their way, saying in part:
“I don’t want them in our country. I’ll be honest with you, OK….Somebody will say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country. With Somalia, which is barely a country, you know, they have no, they have no anything. They just run around killing each other. There’s no structure.”
Rather than make any mention of the fraud or scandal, the mass theft and abuse perpetrated on the state’s communityNagel instead insists that Christians should have radical hospitality for immigrants, without saying what should be done when those guests set your home on fire, and in turn attacks ICE agents doing their job to remove illegal immigrants, writing in a letter to the synod:
This week, the White House took aim at the Somali community here in Minnesota, cruelly disparaging and attacking these neighbors who have contributed so much to our state.
The attacks alsoincluded threats and now the deployment of a targeted ICE operation in Minnesota. This is just the latest in a pattern of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy from the Administration, and we’ve heard from neighbors that they are heartbroken and angry.
She continues:
Again and again, our faith and the ELCA’s social teaching call us to reject such cruel characterizations of our neighbors, to oppose unjust immigration policies and practices, and to show up alongside our neighbors who are under threat. ..We will work for policies that cause neither undue repercussions within immigrant communities nor bias against them
h/t Exposing the ELCA & pastor Tom Brock
