Chuck Schumer knows how to fix Somali fraud. He should just ask … Chuck Schumer

Chuck Schumer stays silent on Minnesota fraud scandal, but his 2013 immigration bill proposed solutions for immigrant integration challenges facing Somali communities today.

Howard Husock is the author of "The Projects: A New History of Public Housing" (NYU Press, 2025) and of "The Poor Side of Town: And Why We Need It" (Encounter Books). He is a senior fellow in domestic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He served on the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting from 2013-17. 

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.