Author name: The Midwesterner Staff

ICE Arrests in Michigan Jumped 154% Since Trump Took Office
Illegal Immigration

ICE Arrests in Michigan Jumped 154% Since Trump Took Office

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests have spiked across the country in recent weeks, despite pushback from anti-ICE protestors and an alarming increase in attacks on federal immigration agents.

In Michigan, immigration arrests are up 154% since President Donald Trump took office, as he vows to deliver on his campaign promise to secure the border and carry out mass deportations.

According to data shared by the Deportation Data Project, the pace of immigration arrests has accelerated nationwide, with Michigan seeing a sharp increase in early June, MLive reported.

On Monday, Border Czar Tom Homan had another message: Buckle up, because he wants ICE agents to arrest at least 7,000 illegal immigrants every day — more than double the current quota, The New York Post reported.

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Whitmer’s Michigan: Unemployment Climbs for 10th Straight Month to 5.3%
Economics

Whitmer’s Michigan: Unemployment Climbs for 10th Straight Month to 5.3%

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Michigan’s critical manufacturing industry shed 20,000 jobs over the last year, including at least 4,000 so far in 2025, as unemployment continued to tick up to 5.3% in January.

“The number of unemployed people in Michigan is going up. It has been going up for the past year or so. That’s not unexpected with the news we’ve been hearing with the weakness in manufacturing and retail trade,” Michigan Labor Market Information Director Wayne Rourke told WEMU. “Those are particularly weak industries for Michigan right now.”

Data from the Department of Technology, Management and Budget released Thursday show the number of unemployed Michiganders increased for the 10th consecutive month in January, when another 6,000 lost their jobs.

Compared to the year prior, there were 67,000 more residents without a job in January, marking a 33.3% jump from the same month in 2024. The continued job losses in Michigan come despite a national decline in unemployment of one tenth of a percentage point in January to 4%.

Read the full article at The Midwesterner for more stories like this.

Donald Trump Blasts “Horrible” CHIPS Act, Dimming Gretchen Whitmer’s Chances of Federal Corporate Welfare Funds
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks during the adjutant general change of responsibility ceremony, Lansing, Mich., Jan. 1, 2019 (Air National Guard photo by 1st Lt. Andrew Layton/released).
National Affairs

Donald Trump Blasts “Horrible” CHIPS Act, Dimming Gretchen Whitmer’s Chances of Federal Corporate Welfare Funds

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Image Credit: The Midwesterner/Esteban Clark-Braendle

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been trying to impose a corporate welfare plot on the good people of Mundy Township, near Flint. They don’t want it and President Trump may have ridden to their rescue in his March 4 address to Congress. 

At issue is the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act (CHIPS Act), signed by President Joe Biden and supported by Soviet-inspired central planners everywhere. A California-based semiconductor firm reportedly wants to move to Mundy–but only if they get CHIPS money. Whitmer has already asked Trump for some CHIPS loot, but he doesn’t appear to be cooperating.

“Your CHIPS Act is a horrible, horrible thing,” Trump told Congress. “We give hundreds of billions of dollars and it doesn’t mean a thing.” 

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House GOP Unveils Bills To Counter Chinese Communist Party, Other Foreign Influences
National Affairs

House GOP Unveils Bills To Counter Chinese Communist Party, Other Foreign Influences

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Michigan House Republicans on Thursday unveiled a series of bills to address foreign influence from the Chinese Communist Party and countries of concern.

“We as a state need to be concerned with … all the examples, the intrusions from foreign entities of concern, specifically the Chinese Communist Party and entities controlled by those folks,” state Rep. William Bruck, R-Erie, said at a Thursday press conference. “We’re going to be looking at things like our drones, the technology, the back doors, the ways and means our utilities are constructed digitally.”

“There is no longer a welcome mat in Michigan for entities of foreign concern,” said Bruck, chair of a newly formed House Oversight Subcommittee on Homeland Security and Foreign Influence. “We’re taking that welcome matV and we’re throwing it in the trash.”

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Judge Orders Walmart Shoplifters To Wash Cars In Store Parking Lot
crime

Judge Orders Walmart Shoplifters To Wash Cars In Store Parking Lot

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A Genesee County judge is trying a new form of ex-spongement—sentencing Walmart shoplifters to wash cars in the parking lot this spring. In an effort to deter theft at the Grand Blanc Township store and reward law-abiding shoppers, Judge Jeffrey Clothier began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for misdemeanor shoplifting, The Associated Press reports.

The store in Grand Blanc Township is 50 miles north of Detroit. Clothier hopes some sponge equity in the form of hand-washing cars—as well as facing fellow customers and community members—will discourage people from stealing from Walmart. “I think it will be humiliating to be out there washing cars if you see someone you know,” Clothier said.

Clothier, who was recently elected to Genesee County District Court, has been dismayed over the cases of retail thefts. He joined the bench in January and said that offenders were from all over Michigan and outside the state. “It’s just crazy,” he told the AP, noting he had 48 such cases on his docket one day. Clothier estimates 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars at weekend events at that location in March and April. Walmart is “on board” and will provide water and supplies.

Clothier also plans to join the shoplifters he has sentenced and wash cars alongside them. “Sometimes people are just down on their luck,” Clothier told the AP. “But there’s going to be consequences when you break the law.”

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Whitmer’s Michigan Ranks Among The Worst States For Unemployment Rate Change
News

Whitmer’s Michigan Ranks Among The Worst States For Unemployment Rate Change

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If nothing else, Michigan can claim it’s not the worst state in the republic. A new analysis of the state’s unemployment situation ranked Michigan among the states with the worst changes in their unemployment rates. According to a new review from the personal finance site WalletHub, the Wolverine State ranked No. 48, ahead of only Kentucky, Nevada and South Carolina. Nationally, South Dakota, Connecticut, and New Hampshire are ranked as the states with the best unemployment rate changes.

WalletHub compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia to understand how unemployment rates are changing nationwide. It used six key metrics and compared unemployment rate statistics from December 2024, the latest available data, to key dates in 2019, 2020, 2023 and 2024. “Michigan’s No. 48 ranking in unemployment indicates some ongoing struggles in the state’s job market,” WalletHub writer and analyst Chip Lupo told The Midwesterner via email.

“While the unemployment rate of 5.0% isn’t the highest, it reflects a 3.2% increase from November 2024 and a 21.6% rise compared to December 2023,” Lupo added. “These numbers point to persistent challenges in Michigan’s economy, suggesting that the state is still dealing with significant employment issues despite overall economic growth. Factors like inflation and shifts in the job market likely play a role in this trend.” Michigan’s jobless numbers are among the worst in the country, and state labor officials conceded that after three consecutive years of jobless rate declines, the state’s annual average unemployment rate rose during 2024.

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Michigan Democrats Want to Hike Business Taxes a Whopping 66% to Give Teachers ,000 Raises
News

Michigan Democrats Want to Hike Business Taxes a Whopping 66% to Give Teachers $20,000 Raises

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A pro-teacher, pro-union lawmaker wants to raise the state’s 6% corporate income tax to 10% to spend billions more on public schools while slashing corporate subsidies. The proposal, which would raise the tax by 66%, aims to use the additional corporate income tax revenue to make “historic investments” in public schools. According to the bill’s author, Democrat Rep. Dylan Wegela, the extra money could give teachers an estimated $20,000-a-year raise.

Wegela’s plan would raise the corporate income tax to 10% while also doing away with “corporate handouts through the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve Fund (SOAR) fund.” The legislation earmarks the first $1.2 billion of corporate tax revenue to the General Fund. The next $50 million would still go to the Housing Fund. Everything else would go to the School Aid Fund. Wegela wants to eliminate $500 million for SOAR and direct more than $2.4 billion to the School Aid Fund.

The proposal amounts to a 67% increase in the CIT, according to Michigan Chamber of Commerce spokesperson Sara Wurfel as reported by MIRS. Meanwhile, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a $23 billion budget bill into law this summer.

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Michigan Democrats Look to Remove Competence Exam Requirement to Become a Social Worker
News

Michigan Democrats Look to Remove Competence Exam Requirement to Become a Social Worker

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Proposed legislation sponsored by Democratic House legislators seeks to remove the competence examination requirement to become a licensed social worker. If passed, Michigan House Bills 5184 and 5185 would amend the Public Health Code to eliminate the exam requirement for social workers at all license levels. Both bills were passed Thursday by the House Subcommittee on Behavioral Health.

Opponents say such a drastic change would place Michigan outside the standards observed by nearly every other state in the nation. Michigan officially passed the social work licensing law in 2004, becoming the 50th, and final, state to create a path to licensure. “Sacrificing standards and quality to increase quantity is not what vulnerable individuals in Michigan need or deserve,” according to the authors of Protect Public Health and Safety in Michigan: Reject The Social Work Licensure Modernization Act. “These ‘problematic barriers’ are safeguards and controls to decrease the likelihood of doing harm or re-traumatizing individuals, and to promote public health and safety.”

In order to become fully licensed, individuals with a degree in social work from an accredited university must take and pass a social work licensure exam. In Michigan, the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs oversees the licensure and regulation of social workers. A critical part of the licensure process is the requirement to pass an objective, standardized exam. “Like other licensed professionals — doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers or barbers — social workers must demonstrate knowledge and skills to ensure they can deliver quality services. Anything less puts the health and well-being of individuals, families and communities at risk.”

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