LANSING, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Michigan House Republican Leader Matt Hall of Kalamazoo County Thursday criticized Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s Newcomer Rental Subsidy program which they say offers benefits to people who entered the country illegally but later claimed asylum after facing deportation.
Hall says the program, which Whitmer’s agencies created last year using funds from the state’s Housing and Community Development Fund, offers various immigrant households up to $500 a month in rental assistance for up to 12 months.
He says the program criteria even allow individuals with a pending asylum application to receive support, including people who came into the United States illegally and then filed a defensive asylum application as a tactic in removal proceedings.
The Richland Township Republican says, “Gretchen Whitmer’s rent subsidy program makes handouts available to illegal aliens who were caught in the country and then claimed asylum to avoid deportation. They could get a year of taxpayer-funded housing, an incentive to stay in the country and in Michigan after making a frivolous asylum claim. Michiganders shouldn’t have their dollars taken to reward those who broke our immigration laws.”
Hall and Housing Subcommittee Republican Vice Chair Joe Aragona last Wednesday sent a letter to Whitmer’s Office of Global Michigan, which administers the Newcomer Rental Subsidy program with Whitmer’s Michigan State Housing Development Authority, requesting data about benefit recipients, including how many defensive asylum seekers have received assistance.
The lawmakers also raised concerns about loopholes in the employment criteria that allow recipients to avoid the work requirements.
Additionally, they say loopholes in the income criteria offer benefits to individuals earning more than the income caps if they reside in certain qualified census tracts, and applicants can avoid providing proof of income if they’re receiving cash payments, something that seems geared toward accommodating under-the-table work.
Hall says identity verification requirements also contain concerning loopholes. An applicant must provide some form of photo ID, but the options include an “alternate identification document” and any “government-issued identification document,” even as some local governments, such as Kalamazoo County, issue IDs for illegal immigrants.
Aragona said bad actors with a pending asylum application could exploit the sweeping criteria in the subsidy program and divert funds from people in need, including refugees and other immigrants who came to the United States “the right way.”
Comments