Author name: Peter Zambelli

Former Minnesota Viking and University of Minnesota football player Jack Brewer said he has witnessed a dramatic demographic and economic transformation in Minnesota over nearly three decades, including what he described as high-end business activity involving members of the state’s Somali population and growing concerns about fraud tied to taxpayer-funded programs.

Brewer, who later became a business owner after his NFL career, said his experiences came through direct business dealings and personal connections in the state.

“You go to one of them, and they have Bentley and Maserati dealerships in Minnesota. I know because I’ve done business with them, and I’ve been endorsed by them as an athlete,” Brewer told Fox News Digital.

“Now, you go in there, and some of their main customers are these Somali fraudsters buying high-end cars in a state that gets four months of sunlight and decent weather.

They’re driving around sports cars like you would see in Beverly Hills or South Beach Miami, all off the back of the American taxpayer,” he said.

Brewer said his observations coincided with a rapid increase in Minnesota’s Somali population, which began in the early to mid-1990s as refugees fled Somalia’s civil war following the collapse of the country’s government in 1991.

He said he first noticed the change roughly 28 years ago, long before his professional football career.

At the time, Brewer was a child growing up in Grapevine, Texas. By the time he transferred from Southern Methodist University to the University of Minnesota, the Somali population in the state was estimated at approximately 15,000 people, according to the Minnesota State Demographic Center.

That number continued to grow through the 2000s.

By the time Brewer joined the Minnesota Vikings in 2002, at least 5,123 students in Minnesota reported speaking Somali as their primary language at home, according to data cited by the National Institutes of Health.

Brewer said his perspective is informed by his personal life as well. He is married to a Muslim American legal immigrant whose family came to the United States from the Middle East.

“I have been in Minnesota a long time. My wife was born and raised there, from a family of immigrants that came from the Middle East, came to America, assimilated and not just assimilated but actually made me more patriotic,” Brewer said.

“I saw Somalians coming there in droves. They had their own section of town and slowly started taking over the city of Minneapolis,” he said.

As his career progressed and he became involved in endorsements and business transactions, Brewer said he observed increased wealth and cultural influence among some Somali residents, including what he described as visible changes in Minneapolis.

“You turn on your TV. Have you ever seen a mayor on television waving a foreign country’s flag and dancing and trying to rally people to support Somalia over supporting America?” Brewer said.

“When you walk through Minneapolis, you hear Islamic sirens going off because they’ve come in here with that culture, trying to bring in Islamic culture.”

“This is a spiritual battle like we haven’t seen in a long time,” he added.

Recent scrutiny of Minnesota intensified following investigations into alleged fraud involving taxpayer-funded programs.

Activists Ryan Thorpe and Christopher F. Rufo reported that federal counterterrorism sources confirmed millions of dollars tied to Minnesota’s Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program, Feeding Our Future, and other state-sponsored organizations were sent to Somalia, and that terrorist group Al-Shabab may have obtained some of the funds.

According to reporting cited by Thorpe and Rufo, approximately 40% of households in Somalia receive remittances from abroad.

In 2023, the Somali diaspora sent an estimated $1.7 billion to Somalia, exceeding the Somali government’s budget for that year.

Brewer said political influence has followed demographic growth, pointing to the rise of Somali elected officials in Minnesota.

Those include U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, state senators Omar Fateh and Zaynab Mohamed, and St. Louis Park Mayor Nadia Mohamed, all Democrats.

“These people have embedded themselves into the political world, where now they are leveraging the federal government to fund their campaigns, to send money overseas to Somalia and to build luxury condos and create a lifestyle for people in Somalia off the back of the American taxpayer,” Brewer said.

“For me, as a former Minnesota Viking, as a former Gopher, I got my undergraduate and my master’s degrees from the University of Minnesota. I was a captain on both of those teams. It’s one of the most embarrassing times I’ve ever had for a state that I’ve proudly said helped turn me from a boy into a man,” he said.

Brewer said he has reduced his business exposure in Minnesota in recent years.

“I’ve pulled back many of my investment interests in the state and moved business interests elsewhere because of what we’ve seen post-George Floyd,” he said.

Some Somali residents have pushed back against broad characterizations of the community.

Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, previously told Fox News Digital, “Somalis in Minnesota are hard-working folks. Many of them work two jobs, and yet about 75% are still poor.”

“There are entrepreneurs, successful restaurants — people in trucking, IT and even corporate America — making significant changes. But those positive stories don’t get much attention,” Hussein said.

Data from Minnesota Compass shows that about 36% of Somali Minnesotans lived below the poverty line from 2019 to 2023, compared to the national rate of 11.1%. Somali-headed households reported a median income of roughly $43,600 during that period, compared with a national median of $78,538.

Najma Mohammad, a hair stylist who came to the United States as a child, previously told Fox News Digital, “Most people think just because some people are bad and Somali, that every Somali is bad, which is just a stereotype.”

Brewer said he continues to support Muslim legal immigrants who embrace American values, citing his own family.

“Witnessing their family — the way they do business, the way they love this country, what they stand for, their patriotism — I’ve learned from it. I’ve become better from it. I’ve loved my country more from witnessing my in-laws,” Brewer said. “So, I know what’s possible.”

“They did that by moving to Minneapolis and building their businesses. It can happen, and it does happen. That’s what this country was built upon,” he said.

At the same time, Brewer said he believes stronger action is needed at the federal level.

“I would put a freeze on all immigration until we get a handle on the depth of this fraud and the depth of the corruption that has taken place,” Brewer said.

“We need to get all these foreign terrorists out of our country. That should be a collective effort between our armed forces, our local law enforcement, our communities, our leaders, our churches — everyone — to protect our land.”