Buss: Taxpayers deserve answers on Michigan's 'newcomer' program

The Whitmer administration posits that only individuals legally in the United States can receive federal funding through Michigan’s “newcomer” rental subsidy program, which gives landlords up to $500 per month for a year to supplement housing for immigrants who meet other eligibility criteria.

But details of the initiative suggest there may be little control over who gets in, and that not all are in the state legally.

At least $4 million of taxpayer funds are being doled out from the state Housing and Community Development Fund (HCDF) for the program. As part of the controversial tax law change Democrats pushed through the Legislature last year, language was included to deposit $50 million every year into HCDF.

Michigan residents deserve to know if this money is going to immigrants who are here illegally.

“Individuals with a pending asylum application” are specifically allowed to apply for the program, as are any type of other immigrants, according to the Office of Global Michigan, which is allocating federal refugee resettlement funds to the effort in addition to the state tax dollars it is receiving. That could include asylum seekers who file bogus claims that won’t be adjudicated for several years.

The housing and humanitarian crisis forming from the 7.2 million undocumented immigrants who have entered the country under the Biden administration’s watch is driving a fear, substantiated or not, that crime is rising alongside the migrant surge.

With such heightened awareness of this issue, did Michigan policymakers expect to not have to answer questions about the subsidy program? Republican state lawmakers and U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Romeo, are demanding answers from the Whitmer and Biden administrations on who is benefiting from the program, costs of which are going to grow exponentially as the flood of migrants continues.

"What sort of message is our Governor sending to the state by prioritizing migrants and illegals from the southern border over our own citizens?" McClain asked. "Where does the madness end?"

No specifics have yet been offered.

But 97% of pending asylum applications nationally are defensive claims, which means a request for asylum as a defense against removal from the United States, according to Department of Justice data.

Those in defensive processing are already in removal proceedings in immigration court because they have been determined to be ineligible or they were apprehended illegally in the U.S. or at a port of entry.

Forty-four percent of asylum seekers don’t show up to their eventual court hearings, says the DOJ.

Asylum cases in Michigan are backed up. Detroit had a backlog of 6,085 asylum cases in 2023, and cases took an average of three years to be heard in court, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

Nearly nine out of 10 were defensive claims.

Though there are lists of requirements to qualify for the housing subsidy, the program has caveats and loopholes throughout.

“If verification of income is not available, the applicant must submit written explanation of why there is no documentation (ex. cash payment),” the eligibility criteria suggests.

For photo documentation, a driver’s license, passport or green card can be used — as can an “alternate identification document.”

These requirements are not stringent enough to assure taxpayers their money isn’t being used to encourage undocumented immigrants from settling here.

kbuss@detroitnews.com