Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services received $62M to resettle Somalis in Minnesota

The New York Post reported that Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services received at least $62 million in government funding connected to resettling Somalis in Minnesota. The Post described the organizations as central to the state’s resettlement system and linked the funding to Minnesota fraud scandals and Ilhan Omar’s political rise.

Those links are the newspaper’s framing; the reported funding total alone does not establish that the programs caused either outcome. The Post said the organizations resettled an estimated 29,000 Somali refugees in Minnesota beginning in 1993. It put initial expenses at about $2,500 per refugee, covering housing, food and social services.

The Post also reported that the state’s Somali population now exceeds 100,000. These figures describe different things: the estimated number resettled by the organizations and the broader population in Minnesota. The Post attributed the community’s growth to family reunification and what it called the state’s generous welfare system.

That is the newspaper’s account of the causes of population growth, rather than an independently documented finding in the reporting. Its story also connected the resettlement system to fraud scandals, but the material presented does not identify particular cases, establish a role for either nonprofit in fraud, or show that resettlement funding caused those scandals.

Parker Thayer of the Capital Research Center told the Post that total spending on Minneapolis resettlement programs reaches hundreds of millions of dollars. Belaaz also reported Thayer’s estimate and included his view that controversy over immigration programs could affect nonprofit fundraising.

The hundreds-of-millions estimate concerns broader program spending, not the $62 million attributed to the two organizations. A Catholic Charities Twin Cities spokesperson told the Post that the organization ended its refugee and immigrant programs in 2018.

The account does not provide an equivalent statement from Lutheran Social Services, nor does it break down the reported $62 million by organization, contract, year or funding source. The amount is presented as a reported total, not as an audited figure in the material described here. The two outlets foregrounded different aspects of the same report.

Belaaz emphasized the funding, resettlement infrastructure and Thayer’s comments on spending and fundraising. The Post used a more accusatory frame, tying the organizations’ work to fraud scandals and Omar’s rise, and attributing population growth to family reunification and the welfare system.

BizPac Review’s headline also said two church groups took in $62 million to help settle Somalis in Minnesota, but that headline supplies no further supporting detail. The central documented claim is therefore the Post’s reported funding total and the organizations’ role in Minnesota resettlement.

The reported population and per-refugee costs add scale, while the claims about fraud, political influence and the drivers of population growth remain the Post’s framing. The account does not establish a causal connection between the funding and those broader outcomes.