How have Minnesota policies and eligibility rules for public assistance changed since 2020 and affected Somali immigrants?
Executive summary
Since 2020 Minnesota paused routine Medicaid/MinnesotaCare renewals during the COVID public health emergency and resumed standard eligibility reviews after Congress required states to end the continuous-enrollment policy in 2023, affecting about 1.5 million enrollees [1]. State policy changes in 2023 also revised multiple cash, refugee and support programs—among them Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) rules that were narrowed again in 2025—while national political attacks and federal enforcement moves have put Minnesota’s Somali community under new scrutiny [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Pandemic-era protections, then a hard reset
Minnesota, like every state, kept Medicaid (Medical Assistance) and MinnesotaCare enrollees enrolled regardless of life changes from March 2020 through the federal public health emergency; Congress in December 2022 required states to restart normal annual renewals in spring 2023, meaning most of roughly 1.5 million Minnesotans on these programs faced paperwork-based eligibility reviews again [1]. That policy shift turned an administrative pause into a wave of re-evaluations and renewals for a large caseload [1].
2. Legislative reshaping of public assistance after 2022
The 2023 Minnesota legislative session produced a suite of changes across safety-net programs—Minnesota Family Investment Program, Diversionary Work Program, Refugee Cash Assistance, General Assistance, Minnesota Supplemental Aid, Housing Support, Child Care Assistance and SNAP—documented in a state bulletin summarizing those laws [2]. Those changes are broad and program-specific; available sources do not enumerate every single rule change here but confirm the session intentionally revised multiple assistance streams [2].
3. Refugee Cash Assistance tightened and re-administered
State refugee supports were explicitly altered: Minnesota’s DHS adjusted RCA eligibility windows in 2025 so people with ORR eligibility prior to May 5, 2025 retain up to 12 months of RCA, while those eligible on or after that date are limited to four months; administration of RCA for residents of many counties moved into a DHS Resettlement Programs Office on Oct. 1, 2025 [3] [5]. Those are direct cuts to the post-arrival safety net that disproportionately affect recent arrivals—many of them Somali refugees—by shortening the guaranteed assistance period [3] [5].
4. The Somali community: legacy of reliance on supports and fresh political targeting
Research cited by the Center for Immigration Studies reports high usage rates among Somali-headed households—about 54% received food stamps and 73% had at least one person on Medicaid—figures that advocacy and political opponents both use to frame debates about welfare and integration [6]. While those statistics document high program participation in some studies, media coverage since late 2025 shows the Somali community facing intensified federal scrutiny and rhetoric from the Trump administration, including calls to end Temporary Protected Status and reported targeted enforcement in Minnesota [4] [7] [8].
5. Fraud scandals and political weaponization of incidents
Reporting has linked multiple fraud investigations in Minnesota to schemes involving food, housing and health funds; outlets document earlier fraud probes that ultimately became political flashpoints, with critics using prosecutions to argue systemic abuse while community leaders warn of stigmatizing an entire ethnic group [9] [10]. National political actors have amplified isolated criminal cases to justify federal action and rhetoric directed at Somali Minnesotans [9] [4].
6. Two competing narratives in play
One narrative—pushed by some conservative outlets and federal officials—portrays Minnesota’s Somali population as associated with disproportionately high welfare use and a cluster of fraud cases, using statistics and prosecutions to demand enforcement and policy rollbacks [6] [9]. The counter-narrative from local leaders, civil-rights groups and national outlets emphasizes historical refugee resettlement, community contributions, and the danger of broad-brush targeting that conflates individual crimes with an entire population [10] [11].
7. Practical effects on Somali immigrants today
Available reporting shows concrete changes: shortened RCA eligibility for newer arrivals, resumed Medicaid/MinnesotaCare renewals with large-scale re-verification, and heightened immigration enforcement and rhetoric that create fear and potential loss of legal protections for some Somalis [3] [1] [4]. Sources do not quantify precisely how many Somali individuals lost which specific benefits as a direct consequence of each policy change; that granular outcome data is not found in current reporting.
8. What to watch next
Monitor DHS and county renewal outcomes for Medicaid/MinnesotaCare (because 1.5 million enrollees faced reviews) and any implementation reports on the 2023 law changes [1] [2]. Also watch federal decisions on TPS and ICE operations in Minnesota, which directly influence immigration status and eligibility for certain assistance [7] [8]. Local advocacy groups and DHS bulletins are the main sources likely to report specific counts of benefit loss among Somali households; those numbers are not present in the documents cited here.
Limitations and sourcing note: this account relies solely on the supplied state bulletins, news reporting, DHS pages and research summaries; it does not claim effects beyond what those sources document and flags where reporting lacks detailed outcome statistics [1] [2] [3] [6] [4].