No, Whitmer is not subsidizing 'illegal aliens' in Michigan as Trump claims

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday attacked Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's program to provide up to $500 a month in temporary rental subsidies to help house immigrants and refugees, falsely claiming it's available to "anyone who accepts illegal aliens" into their homes and again suggesting without evidence that many immigrants are terrorists or came to the U.S. from mental institutions or prisons.

Trump's comments — which he aired in a 2-minute, 43-second tirade on the Truth Social platform he founded — echoed many of the false or exaggerated claims he made during a campaign trip to Grand Rapids earlier this month when he railed against huge numbers of immigrants entering the U.S. across the Southern border in recent months.

They also came as state House Minority Leader Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, asked Michigan's auditor general to review the program, also asserting that the Whitmer administration was "offering to pay the rent of illegal aliens who got caught in the country and then claimed asylum to delay deportation," though the state outright denied that was the case.

The Office of Global Michigan, which administers the Newcomer Rental Subsidy Program and is part of the state's Department of Labor & Economic Opportunity, provided information and data to the Free Press on Thursday explaining that the subsidies — which are limited to between $300 and $500 a month and can last no longer than 12 months — are not available to anyone considered to be in the country illegally or immigrants caught attempting to enter the country without documentation and filing what are known as "defensive" asylum claims to delay removal.

After a spokesman for the state House Republicans, Jeremiah Ward, argued on Friday that there was no bar to defensive asylum claimants being eligible mentioned among the criteria listed on the program's website, the agency reiterated to the Free Press that in order for any asylee to qualify there must have been a determination by the federal government that he or she is legally allowed to remain in the country. "Applications with a pending defensive asylum hearing are not eligible," the agency said.

The Newcomer Rental Subsidy Program is also part of long-standing efforts, including those that went on during Trump's term in office, to provide housing and other aid to refugees welcomed into the country from around the world each year, including those fleeing wars and famine. "Many refugees and other newcomers face critical housing challenges, and this program will increase access to better and more affordable housing opportunities while supporting a more rapid social integration to refugees and other newcomer populations to Michigan," the program's website says.

Ward said Whitmer is now "trying to cover for the fact that her stated rent subsidy criteria clearly included illegal aliens who got caught and then claimed asylum to avoid deportation," though that was never explicitly detailed on the website either. "This is exactly why Leader Hall and House Republicans demanded transparency and accountability for this sweeping program," Ward continued. "The Whitmer administration must still release the information requested so Michiganders can see who received benefits before officials walked back the publicly outlined policy.”

There is no indication at this point that anyone considered to be in the country illegally has received benefits, however.

So far, the program, which started last October and provides subsidies to landlords (not to the beneficiaries themselves), has approved 245 applications, or about half of those received, to provide funding to help house 1,242 immigrants. Of that number, 537 are refugees, 504 are Afghanis arriving under programs helping those who aided U.S. forces — including those bolstered by federal legislation co-sponsored by two Republican members of Michigan's congressional delegation, U.S. Reps. John James, of Shelby Township, and Jack Bergman, of Watersmeet, — and only 24 were asylees, all of whom have already had their asylum claims approved.

As a condition of eligibility, the program requires that people be eligible to work, be a full-time student or meet other criteria, such as being disabled or lacking child care. They also have to be below certain income levels.

And while immigrants filing defensive asylum claims and awaiting court hearings on their status can apply for and potentially receive work permits if their removal proceedings have been delayed 180 days or more, the agency said that wouldn't be enough to make them eligible for the subsidies, saying it would deny any application in that circumstance, even if the work permit were granted.

The other documentation required to be eligible includes immigration court orders, refugee authorizations, visas, green cards or proof of an "affirmative" asylum claim, which are filed by immigrants already present in the U.S. and not in removal proceedings. The vast majority of asylum claims — in which immigrants claim fear of persecution or torture if they are removed to their home countries — in recent years have been defensive claims. Records kept by TRAC, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, indicated that in recent years affirmative claims are most often granted while defensive claims are denied more often than not.

The state said under the program, immigration status, along with income levels and employment status, is reviewed and verified for the beneficiaries every three months.

In a video posted on Truth Social, Trump excoriated Whitmer, calling her a "radical, left Democrat," saying she "is handing out $500 a month is cash to anyone who accepts illegal aliens into your homes."

"She's calling the scam the Newcomer Rental Subsidy," Trump said. "In other words, she's calling illegal immigrants — many coming from jails, many coming from mental institutions, many are terrorists — she's calling them newcomers, isn't that wonderful? And it's all funded by federal taxpayer dollars ... (President Joe) Biden and Whitmer are selecting and stealing your money to give free housing to illegal alien migrants and then asking you to quarter these foreign armies. And that's what they are, they're armies."

As the Free Press and other news media outlets have pointed out previously, there is no evidence — and the Trump campaign has provided none, despite the Free Press' request — that a substantial number of immigrants coming to the U.S. are from prisons or mental institutions or are terrorists. It also harkens back to Trump's 2016 campaign when he remarked that Mexican immigrants were, in many cases, drug users or rapists. Studies have also shown immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans.

Trump's other claims also ring hollow and appear aimed largely at rousing anti-immigrant fervor ahead of this year's presidential election, with Michigan expected to be a key swing state: While the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement has provided $5 million for the newcomer rental subsidies, that funding is restricted to subsidies for housing for Ukrainian and Afghan refugees. Another $4 million, provided by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) can be used for immigrants from other countries.

Trump said if he wins the election he will end the program "on Day One," though it's unclear how he would do so, since it's funded in large measure by state funds. He also said he plans to order "the largest and most efficient deportation effort in the history of our country."

Free Press staff writers Arpan Lobo, Clara Hendrickson and Paul Egan contributed to this article.

Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @tsspangler.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional context about receiving a work permit while pursuing a defensive asylum claim.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Trump's attack on Whitmer's migrant housing subsidies largely false