When Minnesota lawmakers return to the Capitol on Tuesday for the 2026 legislative session, addressing fraud in state programs and the federal government’s immigration crackdown are sure to be top issues.
Though with neither party in full control of state government, don’t expect any sweeping proposals to advance on either topic — or on other highly partisan debates like gun control. Just like last year, anything that makes it to the governor’s desk will be the product of hard-earned compromise.
Even after a near-record number of special elections in 2025, the Legislature remains closely divided between the Democratic-Farmer-Labor and Republican parties. The DFL and GOP each hold 67 seats in the House, and the DFL has 34 seats to Republicans’ 33 in the Senate.
Last year, that balance resulted in a state budget that required both sides to make sacrifices. DFL leaders agreed to a Republican demand to end state-funded insurance coverage for adults in the U.S. illegally. Republican leaders agreed to certain tax increases.
Since the state passes its two-year budget in odd-numbered years, lawmakers technically don’t have to pass anything this year. Even-numbered years are traditionally known as bonding years, where the Legislature passes a large public infrastructure borrowing bill. The Legislature did not pass a bonding bill in 2024, but did do a $700 million bonding package last year.
Major political events and tragedies in the seven months since lawmakers left the Capitol last year are sure to shape business upon their return.
Changes since end of 2025 session
Minnesota has faced significant trials since the Legislature adjourned after passing a $66 billion, two-year budget last June.
Just days after lawmakers finished business, House DFL leader and former speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were assassinated at their Brooklyn Park home. DFL Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, survived a shooting at their Champlin home the same night.
In August, two children died and more than 20 others were injured in a shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in South Minneapolis — prompting calls by DFLers for Gov. Tim Walz to call a special session to pass new gun-control measures.
Federal prosecutors continued to reveal new fraud investigations throughout 2025, and their estimates of potential fraud in the state continued to grow. In July, the U.S. attorney’s office speculated that Minnesota had lost $1 billion. By December, that estimate had grown to $9 billion lost since 2018.
As fraud caught the attention of national media and politicians, local leaders faced increasing scrutiny. Walz dropped his bid for a third term at the beginning of January amid mounting pressure on the issue.
Then, a surge of immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota, tied in part to allegations of fraud by Somalis, led to clashes between protesters and federal agents in Minneapolis, resulting in the fatal shootings of two activists. There also have been reports of unlawful detainments and stops of U.S. citizens.
On Thursday Tom Homan, the White House border czar, announced that the operation in Minnesota was ending. Homan said the action, focused on the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, resulted in more than 4,000 arrests.
ICE and immigration
Senate Majority Leader Erin P. Murphy. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Senate)
Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, said her caucus’s focus remains on issues like affordability, gun control and fraud prevention, though her colleagues have numerous proposals ready to address actions by U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“The only thing that has shifted for us, really, is our work to make sure that Minnesotans are safe in response to a federal occupation and a fairly lawless and violent force here in the state of Minnesota,” Murphy said. “I hope my Republican colleagues recognize that what we’ve experienced here in Minnesota is a real assault on the U.S. Constitution, the state’s ability to govern itself and pass the laws that we intend for the people of Minnesota and people’s human and civil rights.”
Proposals being floated by DFL senators and representatives include a bill to give Minnesotans more power to sue federal agents for constitutional violations, a local ban on masks for federal agents, and protections against immigration enforcement in locations like schools, hospitals and day cares.
While federal immigration action in Minnesota has dominated the headlines in recent weeks, Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks, said he believes the focus of the upcoming legislative session will ultimately be on “day-to-day” issues.
Minnesota Senate Republican Minority Leader Mark Johnson. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski).
“We have such a limited ability to effect change at the federal law level, which a lot of the stuff falls underneath,” he said. “Even though there’ll be some clarifications, maybe some policy changes that will be proposed, I think overall, the underlying issues are still remaining when it comes to school safety, when it comes to the fraud issues that are going on, when it comes to affordability in this state.”
On immigration, Republicans are likely to focus on proposals to compel local law enforcement to cooperate more closely with federal authorities.
One such proposal received a hearing in the House last year. The GOP-backed bill would ban cities from restricting cooperation with ICE and other federal agencies and require local authorities to notify federal authorities when a person unlawfully in the U.S. is arrested for a violent crime.
Fraud prevention
One area that could see a greater level of cooperation is efforts to combat fraud in government programs. Republicans have found fraud to be an effective political issue against DFLers this election year, though proposals to boost oversight and accountability have support from both parties.
Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth. (Courtesy photo)
“The good thing is that everyone is acknowledging that fraud in Minnesota exists and it is out of control and has been allowed to get out of control,” said House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, who acknowledged that federal immigration actions have recently overshadowed the issue. “Now, is it making it to the top of news feeds? Probably not right now, but it doesn’t mean that it’s gotten better or gone away.”
More prosecutions of fraud in Medicaid-funded programs have been a political vulnerability for DFLers, including the governor.
Last year, federal prosecutors filed charges alleging fraud in a state autism assistance program and housing services for people with disabilities and addiction.
“What we see in Minnesota is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes; it’s staggering, industrial-scale fraud,” former Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson said in December, raising the possibility of a $9 billion loss to the state.
DFLers say they have already taken action on fraud in recent years, including establishing an inspector general office at the Department of Education and giving agencies power to cut off payments when they suspect fraud.
More proposals are in the works.
In 2025, the Senate passed a bipartisan proposal to create a statewide office of inspector general. But it didn’t see action in the House. Murphy and Demuth said they hope to see movement on that bill.
Another emerging discussion is boosting the state’s ability to investigate and prosecute fraud following a wave of resignations at the Minnesota U.S. attorney’s office, which had been the primary engine of accountability. Many, including Thompson, resigned in January, reportedly in protest of Trump administration actions.
Rep. Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids. (Courtesy of the Minnesota House of Representatives)
Leaders of both parties in the Legislature said they have had conversations with DFL Attorney General Keith Ellison about the possibility of hiring more attorneys dedicated to combating fraud. One bill would create 14 new positions at the attorney general’s office — one for each of the federal prosecutors who resigned, according to House DFL Leader Zack Stephenson, a representative from Coon Rapids.
Stephenson said he believed the immigration crackdown had harmed efforts to bring more accountability.
“That was billed as an anti-fraud measure, and it has been a disaster for our efforts to combat fraud in Minnesota. FBI agents have been reassigned from working on fraud to working on immigration. The U.S. attorney’s office has been decimated,” he said. “I think it might be that Republicans are just more interested in using fraud as a political tool rather than actually getting anything done.”
Gun control
After the Annunciation shooting in August, there were widespread calls from DFLers and gun-control advocates for a special legislative session to pass new restrictions on guns and boost school safety. Despite Walz saying a special session would happen “one way or another,” disagreements between DFLers and GOP leaders on how to best protect schools stopped that from happening.
Walz and almost all DFL lawmakers support a ban on so-called assault weapons. They’d also like to see limits on magazine capacity. But with no Republican support and possible DFL holdouts, prospects of such bills passing remain uncertain.
In the face of what DFLers called Republican “stalling” and “stonewalling” on guns, Walz issued executive orders in December aimed at educating the public on existing Minnesota gun-safety policies and laying the groundwork for future gun-control legislation.
Republicans have pointed out that some DFL lawmakers are holdouts on new gun-control laws.
Even though the GOP is tied with the DFL in the House, gun bills still wouldn’t pass in the Senate, where the DFL has a one-seat majority.
Some DFL senators from rural districts have resisted gun-control bills, including Grant Hauschild of Hermantown and Rob Kupec of Moorhead.
When the DFL controlled the Senate, House and governor’s office in 2023 and 2024, they did not pass a ban on assault weapons — semiautomatic rifles with features like pistol grips and detachable magazines.
Republicans have backed boosting funding for school security and mental health services rather than new gun restrictions as ways to prevent violence.
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