Glenn Kessler, the so-called “fact checker” for the Washington Post, claimed that Joe Biden cannot be held responsible for what his deputies are spending on migrants as he worked to refute Donald Trump’s slam on rent assistance programs.
With his April 29 “fact check,” Kessler claimed former President Donald Trump’s campaign said Democrats — including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — are doling out $500 a month for rental assistance to illegal migrants in Michigan.
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Trump and a Trump PAC named MAGA Inc have been alerting supporters to the Michigan rent assistance program, called the “Newcomer Rental Subsidy,” and have noted that some of the millions of dollars Whitmer is pushing into the program is coming from the federal government. And with that being the case, Trump and MAGA Inc are pinning the spending on Joe Biden.
But Kessler insisted that Biden can’t be blamed because he may not even be “aware” of the spending.
“This is a state program that has received federal grant money, but there is no indication that Biden is even aware of it,” Kessler claimed in his fact check. “So it’s absurd to run ads that claim Biden is paying rent for immigrants who are in the country illegally.
Kessler also added that “very few people with asylum claims have received rental assistance — and the state says they are in the country legally.”
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Still, Kessler admitted that the Democrats are using federal and state taxes to pay rent for migrants, even as Americans are struggling to pay their own rent. He wrote:
According to Michigan officials, about 50 percent of 485 applications have been approved, affecting 1,242 household members. The numbers break down like this:
- 537 refugees.
- 504 Afghans who arrived under Operation Allies Welcome.
- 69 with special immigrant visas (individuals from Iraq or Afghanistan who worked for the U.S. government).
- 61 U.S. citizens (children born to immigrant families after arriving in the United States).
- 35 Ukrainians granted humanitarian parole.
- 24 asylees (asylum approved and legally in the country).
- 7 Haitian entrants.
- 5 with lawful permanent residence.
- But back in Michigan, MLive.com described how Americans are suffering amid the rent hikes that have been fueled by Biden’s disastrous economic policies.
The news outlet reported that a resident named Gavin Brown was paying $875 a month to rent a one-bedroom apartment in Grand Rapids, but his situation soon got worse.
“The new owners wanted to bump Brown’s rent up to at least $1,300 — nearly a 50% increase he couldn’t afford. Instead, they gave Brown a six-month grace period of $1,050 until he can find a new place,” MLive reported.
“I’m not going to be able to afford to live in this town much longer if I don’t find a better paying job,” Brown said.
The article was headlined “Michigan’s double-digit rent increase ranks third highest in the nation.”
This is the same state where migrants are now getting free money to help with rent.
Kessler’s rebuttal to Trump’s political points against Whitmer and Biden ignores the contested legality of Biden’s programs, which led to the House impeachment of his border secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas.
For example, Biden’s deputies have included the award of “parole” to more than a million migrants from many countries, including Ukraine, Afghanistan, and several South American countries.
Consequently, a coalition of Republican-led states are suing the Biden administration for the parole policies that have been used to admit so many migrants.
If the courts agree with the Republican politicians, or if the Supreme Court revisits its hands-off decision in the U.S. v. Texas case, then Kessler will have to rewrite his column long after Americans in Michigan have paid their Biden-inflated rents and hundreds of migrants got discounts on theirs.
Kessler’s columns focused on these statements from Trump and his campaign team:
In Michigan, radical, left Democrat governor Gretchen Whitmer is handing out $500 a month in cash to anyone who accepts illegal aliens into your homes. Isn’t that nice? She’s calling the scam the Newcomer Rental Subsidy. 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 distributed by crooked Joe Biden … 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.
— Former president Donald Trump, in a social media video, April 11
“Biden’s helping pay rent for newcomers to America from around the world. You mean illegal immigrants?”
— Voice-over in MAGA Inc. ad titled “Phone Bank,” April 26“Did you see Biden’s paying rent for illegals now? They get handouts and we pay for all of it.”
— radio ad via MAGA Inc., “Lecture,” April 26
Kessler rated all this as “not true” because he sees no proof that Biden “knows” about the spending.
Apparently, Kessler does not think the buck stops at the president’s desk when it is Joe Biden sitting there despite that it has always been accepted that whatever goes on during an administration is, in the end, attributable to the man in charge.
Still, the existence of the program at all does lend credence to Trump’s main point that the federal government — whether Biden “knows” about it or not — is paying out millions in our tax dollars to import and support immigrants while millions of Americans struggle to pay their rent and support themselves even as they pay taxes to give immigrants a leg up past them.
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