Maine Among States Congress Probing for Noncitizen Medicaid Fraud
A Congressional Oversight Committee is investigating whether Maine illegally used federal money to pay for MaineCare benefits rendered to non-citizens.
A congressional investigation into Maine’s Medicaid program is probing whether state officials under Gov. Janet Mills (D) have funneled federally funded health benefits to non-citizens, including those without lawful immigration status.
The investigation comes as explosive allegations of fraud surface against Medicaid providers across the country, including in states like Maine and Minnesota where the suspected fraud has been linked to growing non-citizen populations.
“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is continuing its oversight of the Biden Administration’s open-border policies, their devastating social and fiscal impact on American citizens, and critical federally funded health care programs and services,” said Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
“Specifically, the Committee is investigating waste, fraud and abuse in several Medicaid programs due to the Biden Administration’s failure to enforce U.S. immigration laws and the resulting expansion of benefits for illegal aliens,” Rep. Comer said in a Sept. 3 letter to Gov. Janet Mills (D) and Health and Human Services Commissioner Sara Gagné-Holmes,
Comer said federal and state taxpayers spent $16.2 billion on Medicaid-funded emergency services for illegal aliens during President Joe Biden’s first three years in office. He demanded documents by Sept. 17 detailing Maine’s Medicaid coverage for non-citizens, eligibility verification procedures, and the costs of services provided to “illegal aliens.”
The letter specifically demands the following information from Maine DHHS:
It’s unclear whether the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has responded to Rep. Comer’s investigative request. Emails sent to Lindsay Hammes, the press secretary for DHHS, were not immediately answered.
Seven other states received similar inquiries from Comer, including California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, and Washington.
The Robinson Report has submitted a Freedom of Access Act request seeking relevant records that could determine whether and how DHHS responded to the inquiry. The DHHS has issued an automated response acknowledging receipt of that request; however, no DHHS staffer has provided a good faith time and cost estimate for completing the request, as they are required to do under state law.
Comer’s investigation appears to be focused on the limited number of states that provide some measure of Medicaid benefit to non-citizens and pay for that care with state tax dollars rather than federal tax dollars. The thrust of the inquiry seems to be whether those states illegally pushed the cost of care provided to ineligible non-citizens into federally reimbursable Medicaid costs, essentially shifting the expense of non-citizen welfare from Democrat-controlled states to the federal government.
In light of the congressional investigation into DHHS’ management of MaineCare, a secret directive the Maine Attorney General’s Office issued in January, days before President Donald Trump took office, looks more sinister.
In a Jan. 10 email, Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office issued a directive to DHHS employees that if contacted by DOJ or U.S. Attorney’s Office officials, they should “not respond” and instead refer inquiries to supervisors and state lawyers.
The timing suggested Frey — or someone in the Mills Administration — anticipated that a Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney or an unrelated DOJ probe might investigate MaineCare spending or some other activity involving DHHS. In hindsight, the order appears to be a tacit acknowledgment that the Mills administration could be vulnerable to federal scrutiny over Medicaid billing practices.
The vulnerability could be similar to the errors and weaknesses first identified by State Auditor Matt Dunlap (D) in his single annual report assessing state spending for 2024. In that report, Dunlap found that the Mills administration routinely circumvented or ignored procedures for no-bid contract spending, including for contracts funded with federal dollars.
Just like Maine would be liable to re-pay non-citizen welfare benefits wrongly charged to the federal government, the state could also be liable to re-pay federally funded no-bid contracts that were awarded via a process that violated federal guidelines.
MaineCare for Non-Citizens
At the heart of the congressional investigation are payments the state of Maine makes under MaineCare to cover health expenditures for a growing class of non-citizens. That population includes the large diaspora of Somali refugees and newer Somali asylum seekers generally living in the Lewiston-Auburn area, as well as the more recent influx of Angolan, Congolese, Central American, Middle Eastern, and Haitian non-citizens who’ve settled in Maine with various forms of temporary legal status or pending applications for permanent legal status.
Medicaid, a.k.a. MaineCare, is Maine’s largest budget item. For U.S. citizens, most Medicaid spending is reimbursed by the federal government. However, federal law places strict restrictions on how welfare benefits like Medicaid can be provided to non-citizens. Only “qualified” non-citizens are eligible for federally funded Medicaid benefits, with the exception of “emergency” benefits. The qualified non-citizen category includes lawful permanent residents (e.g. green card holders), refugees, and asylees, but it does not include non-citizens who have only applied to become asylees after entering the U.S. illegally.
In many cases, the non-citizens residing in Maine entered the U.S. illegally from 2018 to 2024 and later filed defensive asylum claims. Merely submitting an asylum claim allows a non-citizen to remain paroled within the U.S. under a temporary legal status. Although they do not have authorization to remain in the U.S. permanently, they do have temporary protection from deportation. Such individuals may also obtain work authorization credentials, known as a Form I-766 or Employment Authorization Document (EAD). Those documents serve as proxies for Social Security Numbers in some contexts, allow for legal employment, and provide access to certain benefits until their asylum claims are adjudicated. Because the U.S. asylum process is so overwhelmed and inefficient, claims can regularly take 4-5 years or longer to process. Even though most asylum claims have historically been rejected, asylum applicants with EADs have a de facto legal status, permission to work legally, and the ability to access some state-level welfare benefits.
It’s a gray area of American immigration law that has been maximally exploited by illegal aliens and the left-wing NGOs, including many taxpayer-funded NGOs, who support them and facilitate their exploitation of the system. Even in the event an illegal alien’s request for asylum is rejected, there is no mechanism for their deportation. Such aliens are expected to self-deport. Given that they may have already obtained work authorization, employment, a Real ID and a Driver’s License in Maine, there’s little incentive for them to return to their home country, as they are legally bound to do. The asylum system amounts to a glitch in the system that allows for unlimited entry into the U.S. for those who are willing to game the system.
During this time, non-citizens may also qualify for free health care benefits under MaineCare.
Maine is among the 14 states that provide some level of state-funded Medicaid benefit to individuals regardless of citizenship or immigration status. That means the money for non-citizen medical welfare comes right out of Mainers’ pockets via the General Fund, as opposed to coming from the faraway federal government. Under current law, MaineCare covers all individuals from birth to age 20 regardless of citizenship or immigration status, as well as pregnant women from the start of pregnancy to 12 months postpartum. Although Maine already provided limited medical welfare benefits to non-citizens, that pipeline was expanded as part of the July 1, 2021 emergency budget bill. Tucked away in the massive 268-page spending omnibus was language that created a “state-funded medical program for noncitizens.”
Noncitizens who do not fall into the categories established by the law and subsequent rule-making may nonetheless receive Medicaid-funded care for emergency services, but the conditions for that process are articulated in federal law and those services are federally reimbursable. However, for non-emergency services, states like Maine that choose to provide Medicaid benefits to non-citizens cannot ask the federal government for reimbursement for those claims. In other words, when a state decides to provide Medicaid to non-qualified non-citizens, it has to pay the cost from general fund tax dollars. That means every non-citizen enrolled in MaineCare is paid for 100 percent by Maine taxpayers rather than the federal government.
States that illegally receive or attempt to receive reimbursement for Medicaid dollars provided to non-citizens can face severe consequences. The federal government can demand repayment of all illegally reimbursed funds, bar a state from future Medicaid reimbursements, increase audits and other oversight measures, and issue new mandates to ensure program integrity (which would add additional costs to the already expensive DHHS bureaucracy). If the Mills Administration’s hand gets caught in this particular cookie jar, the consequences will be devastating for Maine’s budget, and a future governor will be left with a gigantic mess to clean.
Individuals who knowingly abetted the fraudulent submission of non-citizen MaineCare claims to the federal government could face civil jeopardy as well. The Federal False Claims act prohibits submitting bogus Medicaid claims, anti-kickback laws could add additional penalties depending on the circumstances, and there could be other federal or state penalties depending on how Maine DHHS ended up billing the Feds for non-qualified non-citizens’ MaineCare. DHHS employees who followed AG Frey’s advice to avoid cooperating with the DOJ may have in fact been better served by seeking their own legal counsel, rather than listening to an attorney who serves the partisan interests of a Democratic politician.
The investigation comes on the heels of the most drastic expansion of medical welfare in Maine’s history. In addition to the 2021 changes that expanded MaineCare coverage for non-citizens, Gov. Mills and the Democrat-controlled legislature expanded eligibility for MaineCare to include higher income thresholds, including for able-bodied Mainers who could be working but aren’t. In recent years, those expansions have contributed directly to “shortfalls” in MaineCare spending, such as the $118 million deficit the legislature faced at the beginning of the 2025 legislative year.
Fraud Allegations Against Gateway Community Services
The prospect that Medicaid benefits have been fraudulently provided to non-qualified non-citizens, or illegally reimbursed to the federal government, are not hypothetical. In Minnesota, dozens of non-citizens and migrants have been ensnared in various conspiracies to defraud state-funded benefit programs for hundreds of millions of dollars. Here in Maine, the most prominent refugee-run migrant services agency has faced credible whistleblower accusations that it submitted fraudulent MaineCare reimbursement requests for more than five years.
Gateway Community Services, run by Chief Executive Office and failed Jubbaland presidential candidate Abdullahi Ali, has been accused of systematically inflating MaineCare claims for years, including during the time when Rep. Deqa Dhalac (D-South Portland) was serving as his Assistant Executive Director.
Former Gateway employee Christopher Bernardini spoke exclusively with The Robinson Report to detail several years’ worth of improper and even outright illegal conduct he personally observed while serving as the MaineCare billing specialist for the Portland-based migrant agency. Bernardini’s claims have not been denied by Gateway, and his allegations are reflected in several DHHS documents obtained by The Robinson Report, which show that DHHS audits found Gateway erroneously billed MaineCare from 2015-2017 and had not repaid the money as of at least 2022.
DHHS records show that, from 2019–2024, Gateway billed MaineCare nearly $28.8 million, while the company at the same time received lucrative no-bid contracts from the Mills administration.
Whistleblowers told investigators that Gateway fabricated timecards, forged provider signatures, and billed for unprovided autism and personal support services.
However, Attorney General Aaron Frey declined to investigate the case.
CEO Abdullahi Ali, celebrated as a Somali-American refugee, was simultaneously running for political office in Somalia, where he boasted on Kenyan television of financing paramilitary groups — even as Gateway pulled in millions in U.S. Medicaid reimbursements.
Years prior to his failed political campaign, Ali received nearly $700,000 under the federal PPP loan program. Employees told The Robinson Report they never learned how the PPP money was spent, but it was not used for employee salaries or to replace income lost due to pandemic era economic lockdowns.
Fraud Epidemics Elsewhere
Maine’s Medicaid program is not unique in attracting federal scrutiny. In recent years, states from Minnesota to California have seen massive prosecutions of Medicaid provider fraud, often linked to services marketed toward immigrant and vulnerable communities.
Minnesota: A wave of fraud hit its Housing Stabilization Services program, with providers diverting millions intended for homeless and mentally ill clients. The FBI and HHS-OIG charged more than a dozen defendants in 2025 alone. One autism fraud case netted millions through falsified service hours.
California: Federal prosecutors charged pharmacy operators in a $270 million Medi-Cal scam, the largest loss ever in the program, involving false claims for generic drugs. Another case involved $60 million in fraudulent home health claims.
New York: Prosecutors exposed a $68 million adult day care fraud that used kickbacks to lure beneficiaries, alongside ambulance operators billing Medicaid for rides never taken — sometimes for deceased patients.
Illinois: A 2025 national takedown charged 13 Illinois defendants, including lab owners accused of a $227 million COVID test billing scheme.
Federal officials say Medicaid fraud cases nationwide cost taxpayers billions annually, siphoning funds from services meant for low-income families, seniors, and the disabled.
Big Picture
The congressional probe into MaineCare could become a political powder keg in Augusta. Comer’s letter emphasizes that the Oversight Committee “has broad authority to investigate ‘any matter’ at ‘any time’ under House Rule X.”
For Gov. Mills and Commissioner Gagné-Holmes, compliance may expose records detailing the scope of MaineCare spending on non-citizens at a time when the state is struggling to house and provide services for asylum seekers. Despite record high taxes and spending, the state is ranking at the bottom of measures for school, infrastructure, and health care quality.
Mills already admitted in her 2025 budget proposal that the state is spending $7M per budget cycle on Food Stamp benefits for non-citizens who are eligible to work but aren’t getting jobs.
An investigative spotlight would doubtlessly reveal that the true cost of Maine’s asylum seeker policies has been far higher than Democratic officials have been willing to admit.
Such a revelation could have severe implications for the 2026 gubernatorial race, where the top Democratic candidates all have ties to left-wing immigration policies or have expressed views that mirror those of the current administration.
Given that MaineCare is a far more expensive program, and that MaineCare cost overruns have become a chronic feature of Maine politics, spotlighting the true expense of non-citizen MaineCare benefits spending could cause significant backlash from Maine voters, especially considering the record high spending and taxation levels reached this year.
READ MORE
Top Republican Calls for Investigation Into Gateway Community Services for MaineCare Fraud
Migrant Agency Accused of MaineCare Fraud Boasts Extensive Ties to Maine Democrats
Maine Secretary of State Admits Non-Citizens Registered to Vote
You’ll never find journalism like this with the taxpayer-funded liberal media. So why not support The Robinson Report and the Maine Wire by subscribing, sharing our content, offering generous financial support? Send me an email if you’re interested in helping us keep Mainers informed.
This needs a Federal investigation to reveal how those in power in Augusta have misused their power to reduce medical benefits for Maine residents. Totally unacceptable and those responsible should be held accountable and prosecuted.