MINNEAPOLIS — ICE agents swooped down on Minnesota day cares and other sites suspected in the state’s sprawling, multibillion-dollar fraud scheme as the feds ramped up pressure on Gov. Tim Walz and the local Somali community.

Authorities are investigating whether as much as $9 billion may have been stolen in a mind-boggling social-services scam they say was predominantly orchestrated by Somali immigrants.

So far, $1 billion in fraud has been confirmed by authorities, including $300 million tied to fake food handouts, $220 million involving bogus autism programs and $302 million tied to housing subsidies that never went to those in need, according to a breakdown by Fox News.

“DHS is on the ground in Minneapolis, going DOOR TO DOOR at suspected fraud sites,” the Department of Homeland Security posted on X the same day.

“The American people deserve answers on how their taxpayer money is being used and ARRESTS when abuse is found.”

The FBI, Justice Department and Department of Labor all announced expanded major investigations into the fraud after a mega-viral video highlighted multiple taxpayer-funded day-care facilities that had gotten more than $1 million in taxpayer funding but allegedly had zero or few kids.

The Quality “Learing” Center in Minneapolis — a purported day care with a now-infamous misspelled sign that was highlighted in the video — was bustling with kids Monday, but it is typically such a ghost town that it appeared closed, a local told The Post.

“We’ve never seen kids go in there until today. That parking lot is empty all the time, and I was under the impression that place is permanently closed,” the person said.

The posted hours for the day care — which has received $1.9 million in government funding — are 2 to 10 p.m.

Employees, who cursed at The Post when approached, bussed in kids Monday as the nation’s media descended on the facility.

According to local media, the site also racked up 95 violations from state inspectors since 2019.

Dozens of people — many of them Somali immigrants — have been arrested so far in the overall massive scheme that defrauded taxpayers for years, officials have said.

“Right now in Minneapolis, Homeland Security Investigations and ICE are on the ground conducting a large-scale investigation on fraudulent day care and health care centers, as well as other rampant fraud,” DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to The Post.

In the video shared by the agency, two immigration officers enter a business outside Minneapolis and quiz a woman behind the counter about a nearby building that the agents said appeared closed and asked her if she had “seen any people come and go from there” in recent days.

The employee said she wasn’t working the day before and didn’t have any information to share.
In another video posted on X by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the same two agents ask a man outside an unidentified business about any subcontractors they work with.

“Are there any subcontractors you guys deal with, say any other business partners you use for services, transportation or anything like that?” the agent asks.

The man’s response is unintelligible in the video.

The scam saw newly set up businesses and nonprofits claim to provide services such as housing, food or health-care assistance, then bill the federally funded state programs for the non-existent work, illegally reaping in hundreds of millions of dollars.

FBI Director Kash Patel said that what’s known about the fraud scandal so far “just the tip of a very large iceberg,” as the bureau flooded the state with investigative resources aimed at rooting out and eradicating the schemes before more taxpayers could be defrauded.

“To date, the FBI dismantled a $250 million fraud scheme that stole federal food aid meant for vulnerable children during COVID,” Patel wrote on X.

“The investigation exposed sham vendors, shell companies, and large-scale money laundering tied to the Feeding Our Future network.”

That case saw 78 indictments and 57 convictions, and Patel went so far as to threaten convicted scammers with denaturalization and deportation where eligible.

Somali Uber driver Mohamed Adbi, 38, told The Post on Monday that the fraud is making the community look bad.

“I’m hearing all these fraud cases, and it’s affecting all of us,” he said.

“They have to be accountable,” he said of the scammers.

But “not actually the whole community. The community is very hard-working,” he said, adding that he works 16-hour days.

“Some people are taking advantage of the system. We are very upset, and we can’t do anything about it.”

Federal officials have already been uncovering wide-ranging immigration fraud in the Twin Cities, with a recent sweep finding nearly half of all immigrants in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area guilty of 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 Director Joseph B. Edlow told reporters in September at the time of the sweep.

Although officials didn’t name any specific group of immigrants, Minneapolis has seen a massive uptick in Somali refugees and migrants in recent years — with more than 82,000 people from the war-torn East African nation now living in Minnesota — the largest Somali population in the US.

A former Minneapolis sheriff said the North Star State’s famous “Minnesota nice” culture of polite friendliness — and a tendency to avoid confrontation — helped lay the groundwork for enabling the egregious spread of immigration fraud to take hold and spread virtually unchecked.

Rich Stanek, who spent 12 years overseeing Minneapolis law enforcement as Hennepin County sheriff, has told The Post he thinks local left-wing officials have been openly ignoring those abuses for decades, possibly with the long-term goal of building a voter base that would support their agendas.

“You’ve had several governors in a row — Mark Dayton and Tim Walz — who have ignored it. You had local officials in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Hennepin, Ramsey County, that have ignored it,” he said. 

“It’s all about votes.”