Graham Platner Solicits Donations for Maine Anti-ICE Group Led By Accused Somali Fraudsters

Senate candidate Graham Platner (D., Maine) urged supporters to donate to an anti-ICE group led by several Somalis tied to a nonprofit under congressional investigation for allegedly defrauding the state of millions of dollars in Medicaid payments.

The day after ICE launched a statewide operation targeting illegal aliens in Maine, Platner promoted the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition (MIRC), a taxpayer-funded nonprofit that touted its "ICE Watch Hotline" earlier this month. Its board has included Deqa Dhalac and Nathan Davis, who have been named persons of interest in a congressional probe over their leadership roles at Gateway Community Services Maine.

"Maine is reeling from ICE's latest assault. Those incarcerated, and their families, need our support," Platner wrote on Instagram Thursday. "I'm asking you, if you have anything to spare, to consider contributing to the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition. See the link in my bio, and please spread this far and wide."

Dhalac, a Somali-born state representative for Maine's 120th district who has campaigned with Platner, served as Gateway Community Services Maine's assistant executive director from May 2022 to March 2023. She sat on MIRC's board as a founding member since 2017 and was its vice president until last month, around the same time she was named a person of interest. Davis, who has worked at Gateway Community Services Maine since May 2022 and took over as executive director in June, remains an at-large MIRC board member.

Platner's support for MIRC, which claims to be "dedicated to the advancement of legal, social, and economic outcomes for immigrants in the state of Maine," aligns with his repeated calls to abolish ICE and a vow "to drag every single ICE agent that's been wearing a mask in front of a Senate subcommittee." The self-described communist who once sported a neo-Nazi tattoo has also ignored allegations against Gateway Community Services Maine and Dhalac, calling her a "very good friend and a longtime fighter for justice and decency" at a rally earlier this month.

Another MIRC board member, Amran Osman, also worked at Gateway Community Services Maine. She served as a community resources coordinator from May 2021 to April 2023, according to her LinkedIn profile, though she was not listed as a person of interest in the congressional probe. Osman also founded "Generational Noor," a nonprofit fiscally sponsored by MIRC that focuses on substance abuse within immigrant and "BIPOC" communities.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last month demanded Treasury Department records related to Gateway Community Services Maine and other nonprofits as part of an investigation into widespread billing fraud. The Department of Homeland Security is also investigating hiring practices at Gateway Community Services Maine, which provides "wraparound services," such as health care, job search, and social services, to immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers.

While neither Dhalac nor Davis has been accused of wrongdoing, a former Gateway billing specialist says the alleged fraud escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Christopher Bernardini, who worked for the nonprofit from 2018 to 2025, told a reporter last month that Gateway Community Services Maine billed the state's Medicaid program, MaineCare, for services that were never provided by falsifying client records. He also alleged that Gateway, which received $28.8 million in MaineCare payments between 2019 and 2024, misused funds from the COVID-19-era Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) by paying bonuses and employing no-show staff.

Federal records show that Gateway Community Services Maine and its affiliated organization, Gateway Community Services, received $700,000 of PPP funds. State investigators have also identified more than $662,000 in MaineCare overpayments from 2015 to 2018, as well as an additional $1.07 million from March 2021 through December 2022.

The president of MIRC's board, Fatuma Hussein, has also come under scrutiny. She and Abdullahi Ali, the founder and CEO of Gateway Community Services, received favorable no-bid contracts, funded by COVID-19 money, from Maine's governor between 2022 and 2024 while simultaneously organizing large-scale canvassing and voter turnout operations that favored Democrats, a local news investigation found.

MIRC has received nearly $3.85 million—roughly 44 percent of its total revenue—in grants from the government between 2022 and 2024, according to financial records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. That includes a $689,000 grant from Maine's Office of Population Health Equity, which was awarded while Dhalac served on its "Health Equity Advisory Council" and as vice president of MIRC's board.

Earlier this month at a "Tax the Rich to Fund Health Care" rally, Platner was introduced by Dhalac. She took the stage to praise him and called him the state's "next senator."

Dhalac also spoke and marched alongside Platner at a Dec. 13 event in Lewiston, Maine, organized by Safiya Khalid, another Somali-born left-wing activist and former Gateway Community Services Maine employee. Osman was present as well.

Platner, Dhalac, and MIRC did not respond to requests for comment.

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