A misleading and inflammatory viral video has resulted in the Trump Administration freezing federal child care funding in Minnesota and several other states—jeopardizing the care of more than 20,000 children in Minnesota alone. This moment isn’t about fraud; it’s about attacks on immigrant Americans and the sabotage of our child care system.
Hundreds of hard-working child care workers, many of them SEIU members and primarily Somali immigrants, are now at risk of losing their livelihoods, all because a group of extremists wants to destabilize and threaten immigrant communities.
Every family deserves safe, affordable care, and every care provider deserves dignity and protection. Child care is how parents work, kids thrive, and communities function. When care systems are stable, families are stable. Imagine you’re a working parent, reliant on good, affordable care, and suddenly your care center has closed simply because of a politicized attack. It's devastating!
The video in question was filmed with one aim: spreading misinformation about our Somali-American community. Similar accusations were made against these child caregivers in 2019—which were criticized and rejected by state auditors. This is a renewed political attack by MN Republicans, ahead of Minnesota’s election later this year. They even admitted it!
Elected officials should be supporting caregivers, no matter their background, working for better, more affordable child care. Instead, they're destroying and vilifying.
Caregivers are scared—some have shared stories since the video made headlines. Stories include care centers being broken into, verbal threats and racist remarks, unmarked cars parked outside of care centers, and even home visits by vigilante “reporters” with video cameras—putting providers and the children in their care at risk. All this while ICE ramps up violence in Minnesota communities, resulting in multiple people shot, and the death of Renee Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE officers.
And now, things have spiraled to threaten child care across the United States, with the Trump administration freezing billions more in funding across New York, California, Illinois, and Colorado. The federal funds are from the Child Care Development Fund and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)—a program specifically designed to help low-income families. Once again, we see this administration hurting working families, not helping them.
These attacks do nothing to make child care more affordable. Freezing funds puts children, families, and providers at risk—threatening the closure of small child care businesses and damaging our broader economy—all while doing nothing to improve accountability or child safety.
We see through the lies. Using the pretense of fraud is a convenient way to scapegoat the Somali community while also destabilizing care.
SEIU members won’t stand for this. We’re ready to fight back and support child care providers no matter where they are or where they're from.
There’s not a single provider, parent, or person who wants fraud in child care. We all want an end to the care crisis, needing affordable, quality care that ensures safety and growth for the future of our country. Attacking the immigrant community that's shaping the future of care for the better … is the last way to do this.
Child care is already undervalued, and providers are already underpaid and mistreated. Help us fight back against the injustice happening in care!
