Groups Sue for Communication Records Linked to Somali Daycare Fraud Claims

Nick Shirley’s viral daycare fraud videos triggered a funding freeze on five blue states, but now, activists want to know who in HHS was talking to him.

Independent Journalist Nick Shirley speaks at Freedomfest in Las Vegas, on July 9, 2026. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

A coalition of civil-rights groups sued the Trump administration on Monday, seeking to force the release of internal communications between federal health officials and a YouTube journalist who accused Somali-run Minnesota daycare centers of fraud.

The viral videos helped spur a since-abandoned effort to freeze childcare funding in five Democratic-led states.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rescinded a $10 billion freeze on childcare subsidies and social services funding for five states governed by Democrats: California, Illinois, ‌Colorado, New York, ⁠and Minnesota.

The suit, filed in federal court on July 20 by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), its Illinois and Colorado chapters, the National Women’s Law Center, and the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, accused HHS of failing to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed in March, according to a press statement.

The request includes communication records between federal officials and YouTube creator and journalist Nick Shirley, whose viral video was publicly amplified and “credited by senior administration officials as the basis for the restrictions,” the statement said.

“The public deserves to know why the Trump administration is restricting access to critical child care and family assistance funds that hundreds of thousands of families rely on,” said Linda Morris, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, according to the statement.

“These restrictions are a threat to the very programs that help families stay afloat and enable parents to work, attend school, and care for their children. We are going to court to ensure the public gets the transparency that federal law requires.”

YouTuber Nick Shirley’s viral video raised the alarm about fraud at Somali-run daycares in Minnesota late in 2025.

Children watch television at ABC Learning Center in Minneapolis, Minn., on Dec. 31, 2025. Mark Vancleave /AP Photo

Shirley claimed that Somali-run daycares appeared to be devoid of children, raising concerns that the centers could be fraudulently billing government programs for absent or nonexistent children.

Minnesota state lawmakers have said that whistleblowers have been punished for voicing concerns about Somalis committing fraud and have been accused of racism or Islamophobia because Somalis are black Muslims.

In January, some Somalis told The Epoch Times that they think fraud is “occurring on a large scale” in Minnesota. Most, however, said the accusations appear to be aimed at vilifying Somalis as a group.

The Trump administration froze $10 billion in funds to Minnesota as well as California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York in January this year, citing concerns about fraudulent spending.

Earlier this month, it released the funds.

HHS officials said in letters to the states that they were rescinding the freezes on the funds, which were an attempt to compel the states to provide data proving that the funds would be used for American families, rather than illegal immigrants, according to documents filed with a federal court in New York on July 13.

In March, the ACLU civil rights groups sent a FOIA request seeking records concerning the adoption, implementation, and enforcement of the nationwide Defend the Spend policy and the sweeping five-state funding freeze, which it said targeted Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) dollars.

It said that the administration had “refused to disclose information to the public about its actions, including through its sudden reversal of the funding freeze in an apparent attempt to avoid being required to produce officials’ communications about these attacks in pending litigation.”

“This only heightens the need for transparency into how the Defend the Spend policy and funding freeze were adopted and who was involved,” it added.

Shirley delivered testimony at the Senate Committee Hearing on July 15, where he said that Minnesotans reached out to him “talking about the fraud that was taking place inside of their community.”

“We went to the daycares, autism centers, and healthcare providers, and to my surprise, the businesses were not operating how a typical business would operate,” he said.

He said the first daycare he went to was in an industrial building.

“There was no playground, no children footprints in the snow. They had all the windows blacked out. The doorbell was broken, and the sign said 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., yet there was no one to be found,” he added.

“This daycare in 2025 had received over $1 million in CCAP [Child Care Assistance Program] funding. This continued to be a pattern as we went to other daycare locations.”

The Epoch Times has contacted HHS and Nick Shirley for comment.

Zachary Stieber, Janice Hisle, and Savannah Hulsey Pointer contributed to this report.