Chuck Schumer knows how to fix Somali fraud. He should just ask … Chuck Schumer
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, usually quick to denounce anything he views as a scandal (including most of what the Trump administration does), has been uncharacteristically silent about the billion-dollar Minnesota social services fraud indictments. Understandable perhaps, because of the embarrassment it’s causing for Minnesota Governor and former vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz and Minnesota’s progressive darling Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar, whose Somali constituents are among the ringleaders — but whom left-wary Schumer is loath to alienate as he faces reelection.
But were Schumer to look back at his own legislative record, he could find a relevant and constructive response — one that might even help Democrats still lost on immigration-related issues in the wake of the Biden-era de facto open border.
In 2013, Schumer was one of a so-called Gang of Eight senators — including then-Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio — to sponsor a sprawling immigration law reform bill, the "Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act." The so-called "comprehensive" bill included everything from a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants to an increase in visas for foreign student in STEM fields — proposals even more likely to spark Republican opposition today than they did in 2013 when the bill died in the House after actually passing the Senate.
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Schumer insisted that "piecemeal reforms" should not be considered — but one aspect of the bill that he endorsed could serve him — and centrist Democrats — well today, were he willing to revive it. The proposed Office of Citizenship and New Americans put the Senate leader squarely behind what was once called Americanization or assimilation, and more lately immigrant ‘integration.’ It took as a given that immigrants from countries that don’t share American legal and cultural norms should be exposed to them — in the process of their being taught English.
An "Office of Citizenship and New Americans" would be responsible "for training on citizenship responsibilities for new immigrants," including "information about English and citizenship education programs," according to the American Immigration Council. Passing a citizenship test, keep in mind, requires a knowledge of the Constitution and the U.S. legal system.
Aiming, too, for "upward economic mobility," it’s the sort of initiative that would have been ideal for Minneapolis Somalis, some 90,000 of whom count Somali as the first language and come from a country ranked as one of the most corrupt in the world. Transparency International, in fact, gives it a score of just 9/100, making it the 179th of 180 countries, or the second-most-corrupt government in the world. It’s actually gotten even worse since 2023, when it ranked 177th. Only war-torn South Sudan ranks lower.
In other words, immigration to a historic clean government state like Minnesota would be a cultural adjustment for Somalis, putting them in a position to take advantage of overly trusting locals.
The U.S. has historically profited from immigration by promoting values such as trust, integrity and the rule of law — and the idea that the best way to move up is to adopt those values. It’s a tradition that dates to the early 20th century immigration wave, when hundreds of volunteer-led "settlement houses" taught English and prepared immigrants to be citizens.
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It’s not as if European immigrants did not have their own corruption problems, such as those imported by the Sicilian Mafia from a region known for its dysfunctional honor society. (See Edward Banfield’s brilliant 1958 book about Sicily, "The Moral Basis of a Backward Society.") To remember those who combated such a culture, think of Nobel Prize winner Jane Addams, founder of Chicago’s Hull House, who worked to teach South Side immigrants to cook healthy dinners and not to throw their garbage in the streets.
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That city, as well as Minneapolis and so many others, should be using her approach today — and Schumer’s Office of Citizenship and New Americans would have helped, even if it didn’t cut the larger Gordian knot of immigration policy.
Of course, any government program — including one meant to Americanize immigrants — could be taken advantage of by grifters. The essential Minnesota problem — a naïve government asleep at the wheel — still would have to be addressed. Indeed, a civil society approach — led by charity and volunteers — would be better.
But a Democratic Party always keen to propose a government solution could do worse than revive Schumer’s 2013 idea — and it just might have done some good in Minneapolis.