Nick Shirley visit raises alarm for some San Diego child care providers

Driving the news: Local providers, especially from the Somali refugee community, told Voice of San Diego and KPBS that strangers have come to their home child care centers in recent weeks with video cameras.

• One provider said she got texts of eye emojis and a photo of Minneapolis Congresswoman Ilhan Omar in handcuffs, according to Voice of San Diego.
• Others said people are waiting outside their homes or sitting in parked cars with cameras, per the Union-Tribune.

What they're saying: "They are putting people, including children, in real danger," provider Samsam Khalif said at a Jan. 8 news conference.

• "We are being targeted and profiled by a group of people labeling our entire community with a stereotype," she added. "People are just showing up and recording us."

Catch up quick: Shirley's Minnesota video claims that child care centers that received government funding were not actually serving children.

• His video blew up online, prompting a response from the FBI.
• Within two weeks, the Trump administration surged federal agents to Minnesota in part to investigate allegations of fraud.
• The White House also froze federal child care funding to Minnesota, California and three other states, but a judge temporarily blocked that freeze on Friday.
• The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families found no evidence of fraud during past investigations into some of the child care centers shown in Shirley's video.

Zoom in: San Diego activist and private investigator Amy Reichert posted on X Jan. 30 that she and Shirley had spent two days visiting local learning centers.

• In a Jan. 20 post, she cited publicly available state inspection reports showing that there were fewer children in attendance at a given child care site than were enrolled there on multiple dates.

• She hasn't said specifically how many centers they've visited or what they've found.

Reichert told Axios in a statement she's found multiple reports of child care centers with high enrollment numbers but no children present.

• She added she hasn't claimed there is fraud, and she's not targeting any racial or ethnic group.
• Shirley did not respond to a request for comment from Axios on Monday.

Between the lines: A child care center not being full is not evidence of fraud, Kim McDougal, senior vice president of social services at YMCA of San Diego County, told Axios.

• "There are many reasons why children might not be at a home child care or child care center on a given day," she said.
• Some children may attend only part-time or at night if parents work late shifts, or they may be out sick that day, McDougal said.
• Many child care entities are under-enrolled because the cost of care is so high, she added.

What's next: It remains unclear when Shirley's San Diego video will drop.