In a post to Facebook on Monday night, Minnesota Congressman Tom Emmer wrote, "I'm calling for the denaturalization and deportation of every Somali engaged in fraud in Minnesota."

"If they're here illegally, deport them immediately; if they're naturalized citizens, revoke their citizenship," Emmer said in the post.

WCCO reached out to Emmer for comment, but a spokesperson declined on his behalf.

Emmer's post comes after a viral video alleging nearly a dozen day care centers in Minnesota of fraud. Prosecutors have alleged the fraud crisis in Minnesota could top $9 billion.

Last month, a conservative website claimed millions are being stolen from Minnesota taxpayers to fund a Somali-based terrorist group, but there has been no proof of that actually happening.

"Not all Somalis are criminals, I'll give you that," Emmer said on Fox News recently. "But 90% of the people being charged with these crimes... are from the Somali community."

"The rhetoric that's right now online, on social media, that is racist, and targeting of our community should not be policy," Jaylani Hussein, executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations Minnesota, said.

Emmer's post on Facebook is reminiscent of previous discrimination against Italians, Jews and Japanese Americans, Hussein said.

"We've seen that history and we've seen it at darkest moments, when Nazis used that, so we have to be very careful in not repeating that history," Hussein said.

Hamline University political science professor David Schultz said the law regarding the deportation of citizens is clear.

"What he said was basically a violation of the U.S. Constitution and U.S. constitutional law," Schultz said.

Deportation of citizens would require a change in the Constitution, Schultz said.

"Deportation is only for aliens, not for U.S. citizens; that U.S. citizens can't be deported, and that revoking people's citizenship is also unconstitutional, and this all goes back to the 14th Amendment," said Schultz.