Getting a college degree in Detroit has never been easy. More than half of all children in Detroit live below the poverty line. Many Detroit public school graduates do not enroll in college within a year of finishing high school. And of those who do enroll, most don’t earn a degree within six years.

Detroit Public Schools just recorded its highest graduation rate in nearly two decades. 

But it’s always been a hard race for Detroit kids. And right now, it could be getting more difficult. 

Student loan rules are changing in July. The programs that help low-income students get to college are on the chopping block in President Donald Trump’s latest budget. And, the department that oversees all of these things has cut its workforce in half. 

How are students impacted by these changes? How are they interpreting them? And, how do we close the college education gap between Detroit and suburban students.

The folks at the Detroit College Access Network have a sense of this. They work with students to help them navigate financial aid, applications, and what comes after. They’re want 60% of Detroit residents to have some form of postsecondary education by 2030. 

Cyekeia Lee is the executive director of the Detroit College Access Network. She spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

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Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield recently appointed Ali Abazeed as the city’s new Chief Public Health Officer, saying he would be a part of creating a “health in all policies” approach to government.

“We’re really excited to get up and going and also to continue the good work that the department has done over the years, but also to upgrade the software of what public health can look like in the city of Detroit,” he shares. 

Abazeed previously created and led the city of Dearborn’s health department. He also worked as a public health advisor at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

Past policies shape today’s health issues

He says health is impacted by housing quality and environment. He hopes to work with the department’s staff of 280 people to create better health outcomes for Detroiters.

“The challenges that Detroit faces from a health perspective, those aren’t inevitable…  they’re created by decades, if not centuries of decisions made by man, policies that have been excluding people from opportunities,” he says.

Abazeed says the city focuses on a harm reduction approach by working with all city departments to connect the dots for people who live in the city. He says part of that will include having more health department officials out in the city.

“90% of your life expectancy happens in the communities where you live, learn, work, worship, play…  then it requires us to take that 90% collaborative approach across everything that we do at the city,” he says. 

Abazeed says Detroiters face health burdens like asthma, which he says require a multifaceted response. 

He says everyone is entitled to good health. 

“Understanding who has been disqualified, who has been sort of pushed to the side, and whether that’s… in Washington or Dearborn and now in Detroit, I think the work is relatively the same, even if it does take on a little bit of a different scale,” he says. 

The Michigan Democratic Senate Primary is heating up a bit. Polls largely show the trio of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Congresswoman Haley Stevens, and State Senator Mallory McMorrow all within the margin of error of each other.

Stevens and McMorrow have been trading off the lead.

The race has simmered with the candidates not really taking shots at each other. That’s now changed.

Yesterday, El-Sayed rallied at the University of Michigan and Michigan State with left-wing influencer Hasan Piker.

Piker’s livestreams – and political commentary – have drawn over three million followers on Twitch.

In 2024, Piker was invited to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, but was kicked out over his criticism of Democrats and candidate Kamala Harris – for their failure to stop or criticize Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The 34-year-old Piker has made some controversial statements and his inclusion by the progressive El-Sayed has drawn sharp criticism by centrist Democrats.

When the campaign stops were announced, McMorrow was quick to compare Piker to Nick Fuentes—a far-right white supremacist holocaust denier. Stevens and current Michigan U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin also criticized the move.

Detroit-based reporter Tom Perkins looked at the controversy for The Guardian.

He tells WDET’s Russ McNamara that this fight is indicative of an internal struggle within the Democratic Party.

A party divided

Tom Perkins: I think this is really part of the ongoing civil war between the sort of Hillary Clinton wing of the party and the more progressive Bernie Sanders / AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) / Zohran Mamdani wing of the party.

You have El-Sayed and Piker, who are very progressive, and Piker has campaigned or interviewed AOC, Sanders, Zohran Mamdani, etc. And while McMorrow is a little bit younger and more progressive than somebody like Hillary Clinton, a lot of her surrogates, her aides, etc., come from that camp. And so that’s sort of the broader dynamic here and worth keeping in mind.

Accusations of anti-semitism

TP: Piker has been highly critical of Israel. He’s criticized it over its genocide, its rampaging through the Middle East, its war crimes, its atrocities, and he speaks about it in very strong terms. So that’s that alone has drawn some criticism, but he’s also said some pretty controversial things.

[Piker] said Hamas is lesser of the two evils with the Israeli government. Hamas is 1000 times better than the Israeli government. And he said this in the context of looking at who causes more death in the Middle East. And while it’s a controversial statement, people have said, “Oh, well, that’s antisemitic.” But he’s defended himself and said, “No, that’s a criticism of the Israeli government. That’s not a criticism of all Jewish people.”

[Piker] called a sect of Orthodox Jews in Israel who are ethno-supremacists, “inbred.” And that ignited a huge controversy, and that’s been used against him. People have said, “Oh, well, he called all Jews inbred.” He’s, defended that, and said, “No, I use that term to describe Nazis. I use that term to describe ethno-supremacists and racial supremacists of all kinds.”

When I talked with him about it, he said, “Look, there’s a super cut out there of an hour long of me calling different groups inbred, and it has nothing to do with with Jewish people or Jews. It’s just a term that I use to describe supremacists.”

Arab American views

Russ McNamara: What do Arab American leaders say here in Michigan?

TP: For my story, I spoke with seven local and national Arab American and Lebanese American leaders. They all said some variation of the same thing, which is that these attacks on El-Sayed and Piker show that the establishment Democrats are making the same moral and strategic blunders that they made in 2024 that led to Dems electoral demise in Michigan and nationally.

They say this is an attempt to censor criticism of Israel, and they say that it shows the anti-Arab bias that imbues the political establishment. McMorrow in her criticism of El-Sayed and Piker said, “Well, you know, Piker shouldn’t be here, because this happened in the wake of the Temple Israel Synagogue attacks,” which she said that Jewish people are suffering from that. Which is true that Jewish people are suffering from that, and that should be acknowledged, but she doesn’t acknowledge the suffering of the 120,000 Lebanese American people in Michigan.

Their families are from southern Lebanon. Israel has invaded Lebanon, virtually every one of these 120,000 people, either have a family member, a loved one, a friend who has been killed by Israel, or displaced by Israel. A million people are displaced right now in southern Lebanon. Many, many people from Michigan have family members who are suffering. That suffering is reverberating across Southeast Michigan, and that is not being acknowledged by McMorrow or centrist Democrats or establishment Democrats.

RM: How much impact will this actually have on the Democratic Primary?

TP: One of the one of the folks I spoke with for the story was Abed Ayoub, who’s the spokesperson for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), an Arab American civil rights group in Dearborn.

He said to me: “Look, Republicans are making inroads here. If there’s somebody like McMorrow, if there’s a Democratic candidate who’s not considering us, who’s not thinking about our suffering, who’s telling us to be quiet about Israel, then the same things that happened in 2024 are going to happen again. People are going to vote for a Republican. They’re going to stay home, they’re going to vote third party. So yes, if you want to win in Michigan, you might want to acknowledge this suffering. You might want to acknowledge that this is happening.”

I should stress that everybody I spoke with said some variation the same thing, which is the suffering of both people can be acknowledged at the same time. We don’t have to exclude one or the other.

President Trump and Republicans want to change our elections in substantial ways. 

Recently, the president signed an executive order that seeks to change how mail-in voting works, having it overseen by the Department of Homeland Security. Trump and Republicans are also trying to pass the SAVE Act, which would ensure voters provide documentary proof of citizenship at the time of registration, and a photo ID at the time of voting.

All of this is happening as the president has called to “nationalize the elections”, and as MAGA influencer Steve Bannon has asked ICE officials to patrol polling locations in November. 

What should we make of all these things? How secure are our voting systems? And, is the president trying to make voting less secure for his advantage?

Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent about this and more.

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Last October, Ground Services at Wayne State University discovered an infestation of bark beetles on trees in Gullen Mall. 

Donna Reincke, Associate Director of Grounds for Wayne State University, explains how these tiny insects caused great harm. 

“They burrow into the tree trunks and leave these tiny little holes, maybe about the size of a pencil eraser. With that, the insect infestation introduced a fungus [blue stain fungus] into the tree, which stopped the tree from being able to take up water, and killed a couple of the trees.”

The fungus spread to surrounding trees and left them too damaged to save.

Reincke says sadly, they had to remove 11 pine trees in Gullen Mall, as dead trees pose a major safety risk.

“We do remove them to avoid any accidents from happening, and it’s just a safety issue with the risk of it falling, and dead branches falling down,” explains Reincke. 

Expanding campus tree canopy

With the help of many volunteers from The Greening of Detroit and Wayne State University’s Office of Sustainability, Reincke is happy to share that they replanted 30 trees in the same area. 

Reincke says, “even though the trees are smaller than the ones that were removed, we wanted to make sure we still did right by planting trees that could fill in the canopy, and it was a really fun, successful event.”

In addition to Gullen Mall, Reincke stated they planted 71 trees at Wayne State University’s athletic complex, on the corner of Warren Avenue and Trumbull Street. 

Over these two spaces, they planted Hackberry, Kentucky Coffee ‘Decaf’, Bald Cypress, ‘Autumn Splendor’ Buckeye, Allegheny Serviceberry, London Plane, Blackgum, Tulip Tree, Basswood, Accolade Cherry, and Swamp White Oak. 

Wayne State University’s Ground Services and Office of Sustainability are partnering up again to host a tree planting event for Arbor Day, April 24th, 2026.

For more details, visit Wayne State University’s Get Involved page.

When President Donald Trump took office, he promised to crack down on immigration. He’s done that. 

Since January of 2025, at least 2,400 immigrants were arrested in Michigan alone. But President Trump and immigration officials are not following an orderly process. Officials are often skirting the law, or violating it. 

This was visible months ago in Minneapolis, when masked ICE agents shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti and thousands took to the streets. Here in Michigan, the work of ICE is harder to spot. But due to action in the courts, we’ve been learning more. 

Federal judges recently ruled that hundreds of people in Michigan were unconstitutionally detained as they never had a chance of being released on bond. 

For its part, the administration says it’s detaining the “worst of the worst.” But in many cases, non-citizens without a criminal record have been detained. 

So, what do ICE arrests and detentions look like in metro Detroit? What are the stories of those who’ve been detained? How are local police involved in the work? And, who’s fighting back? 

Violet Ikonomova is an investigative reporter for the Detroit Free Press. She spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

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Since 2015, consumer confidence in the economy has plummeted according to recent consumer survey data by the University of Michigan. But while confidence has declined, spending has remained strong. Why? And, how have rising gas prices factored into the economy?

Professor Joanne Hsu is the director of the monthly Surveys of Consumers at the University of Michigan. She spoke with The Metro’s Sam Corey.

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The economy has undergone many drastic changes over the years. If you’re a millennial, change and chaos have been commonplace.

The Great Recession hit in the late aughts, reducing wealth. About ten years later, the pandemic occurred, causing many to stay at home and others to risk their health at work. Inflation deepened during President Joe Biden’s time in office. President Trump enacted tariffs. And now, the U.S. and Israel are at war with Iran. 

It’s hard to gauge all the consequences of this latest shock, but it’s a continuation of one thing: uncertainty. 

Rising gas prices and supply chain disruptions are now among the challenges small businesses must navigate. It might be why over half of small businesses owners in Michigan say they’re making operational changes to prepare for a recession, according to a recent survey. 

Which small businesses are hit hardest by the war in Iran and its disruptions? And, what could make them more resilient in the face of chaos?

Mark Lee is the president and CEO of The Lee Group, where he consults with small businesses across Southeast Michigan. He spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

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Michigan elects a new governor this year.

The crowded field of candidates for the governor’s office includes former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox.

The Republican contender says his background has shaped his run for the top job in Lansing.

Interview edited for length and clarity

Mike Cox: Just a generation ago, my parents came to Michigan because it was the greatest state in the greatest nation. They were immigrants, legal immigrants, and literally my dad used to tell us when we were growing up as kids that the streets were paved with gold when he got here. That’s how so many generations of Americans have viewed Michigan.

And right now, as football coaches tell us, the numbers tell the story. You are what your record says you are. And every single month we’re dwelling at the bottom in unemployment.

Just 12 years ago, we were middle of the pack in fourth grade reading, middling, and we’ve shrunk all the way back to the bottom.

The flip side of that is my granddaughters, kind of fortuitously, are growing up in Mississippi. In the past 12 years, they went from 49th to 9th. That’s why they call it the Mississippi Miracle. It’s been a miracle for my grandkids.

So why am I running for governor? We’ve been in decline too long. And I know I can build a team that’ll lead us back to victory, to make Michigan the state my parents remembered.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: You mentioned several issues there.  Which do you see as the most important to voters in Michigan?

MC: The most important are the three “E’s.” That’s education, employment/economy and emigration with an “e.” That means outbound migration, folks leaving us. And that’s really a function of education and the economy.

Over the past seven years we’ve had a state government that’s grown by 54%. $31 billion in new spending. And Quinn, that is killing affordability here in Michigan. You overlay that with Gov. Whitmer’s clean energy plan, which many, including me, call a scam. We now have the highest energy rates in the Midwest.

It makes it much less competitive to do business here in Michigan. So people are heading south. I’m not just talking about Florida, Tennessee, Texas. I’m talking about Indiana and Ohio. They’re the ones who are picking our pockets. And as governor, we can change that.

Spending less, improving education

QK: If you were elected governor, how would you address those issues specifically? Especially if you would still have to deal with a politically-divided legislature.

MC: Look, I was a prosecutor here in Detroit for 13 years before I was elected attorney general. Across the region, people want their kids to be able to read by the third grade, right? So, in terms of fixing education, states like Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi are now leading the country and doing it with much less money than we in Michigan spend. What do they do?

Number one, they require every kid to be able to read by third grade. Pretty simple. Number two, make sure every kid gets taught phonics the same way. Pretty simple. If a kid’s struggling, such as my granddaughter who is autistic, they get a tutor. Number four, provide coaching for teachers. And then number five, grade every public school, including charters. That allows parents, grandparents, and property taxpayers to see how their local school is doing.

Those five things have turned Mississippi around. And they’re doing it with 40% less spending per child, through every single demographic. We can do that. It’s doable right now.

Eliminating income tax

MC: In terms of eliminating income tax, it’s just simple. What are the most dynamic states in the nation right now? There’s Florida, Tennessee and Texas, like I mentioned, but also Wyoming, New Hampshire, cold weather states, South Dakota, Nevada. What do they all have in common? They all have different economies but they all have no income tax.

That helps small business owners, folks doing what I’ve been doing for the past 15 years since I disappeared from politics and built a business. It would cut the state corporate tax on 900,000 small businesses here in Michigan. And what then happens? The owner there can buy another stove or hire another server or consider opening another facility, right? It means the owner of a tool and die shop might send her employees for new training or buy a new machine.

Governors cannot pick winners and losers. Wall Street can’t even do that. But you can lower the burden on every small businessman and woman, make decisions quicker in terms of permitting and licensing. Doesn’t make anything less safe, but makes the process quicker.

You accelerate, you join the cadence, the velocity of what business needs to succeed. And this state will grow more prosperous.

What replaces income tax funds?

QK: If you eliminate the state income tax, that would erase a fair amount of revenue that comes into the state. How would you replace it?

MC: When I was elected attorney general in a close statewide race—I was the only Republican to ever beat Democrat Gary Peters—I didn’t know we were about to walk into the “lost decade.” For seven or eight years we were in a one state recession. And the rest of the country joined us during the Great Recession.

As you can imagine, our caseload jumped about 10%. At the same time, each and every year I was getting less money from the legislature. I had to reduce the size of my staff by 21%. No one ever does that in government. But I did it because it was required.

So what do you do at the state level? You do what Ford, GM, and Chrysler do. You turn to your vendors and you squeeze them for money. We upgrade technology. Without the goal, we’re never going to get there. And we will start to attract people again. Our revenues will actually grow as each and every year you see Tennessee growing, Texas growing. People are moving there. They’re staying there.

What does it mean? For a young couple trying to save up for that first home, a couple years without the income tax means they get the nest egg to plant roots right here in Michigan. For 900,000 small businesses, which are more than 99% of all the businesses in Michigan, it would be a tax cut. They would be able to hire more people, employ more people. The income tax is $13 billion every year. Michigan’s government, under the governor’s current proposal, will have grown $31 billion over seven years. That’s over twice what it would take to eliminate the income tax.

And I’ve taken on big fights and won. That includes utilities, when I saved ratepayers over $3 billion when I intervened. Whether it’s Blue Cross, when I helped stick up for individual payers and seniors, or whether it’s government in terms of affirmative action, I’m a guy who sticks up for the little guy and little woman.

On the morning before Thanksgiving, Mor Ba got into his car to go to work but was hemmed in by unmarked cars. Immigration officers poured out and asked for someone whose name he didn’t recognize. Ba doesn’t have a criminal record and wasn’t breaking any laws. He was just months away from his first big hearing in an asylum case he’s been waiting on for years.

As soon as he was allowed to use his phone, he started calling his aunt, Seydi Sarr, a Detroit-based immigrants’ rights advocate. She was in the middle of translation work, but answered the phone when Ba’s calls kept coming in.

“I picked up the phone and I’m like, ‘Boy, it’s not because you’re graduating early that you’re going to wake up in the morning and calling me 25,000 times, what’s up?” she recalled. “And he said, ‘Hey Auntie, I’m here at the ICE (office).’ And I’m like, ‘What you doing at ICE?’”

Ba came to the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor from Senegal. He doesn’t have any other family here besides his aunt.

He had just graduated a semester early from Western International High School, a Detroit school with a program for “newcomers” to the U.S. like himself. The 19-year-old was determined to attend college and had brought all of his application materials to Sarr’s house the night before. But she had been busy preparing to host Thanksgiving and told him to come back after the holiday.

By then, Ba was at the North Lake Processing Center, an immigration detention facility in the northwest corner of Michigan.

“The asylum process is supposed to protect you.”

Sarr, who founded an immigrant advocacy organization called African Bureau of Immigration and Social Affairs (ABISA), was shocked to learn that her own nephew had been detained. Not least because Ba is an asylum seeker and was finally a few months away from the master hearing that would lay out a timeline for an immigration court to decide whether he could stay in the U.S.

“The asylum [process] is supposed to protect you,” Sarr said. “Nothing is supposed to happen to you when you file for asylum until you lose your asylum.”

Immigration officers generally didn’t target asylum seekers as long as they engaged with the years-long process of court hearings, ICE check-ins, and abided by the law. That changed after President Donald Trump began a major deportation campaign.

Trump repeatedly told voters that he would carry out the “largest deportation effort in American history,” and that his efforts to do so are the fulfillment of that campaign promise. His administration has repeatedly described those who are arrested as criminals, although data shows that only a small minority have been convicted of criminal offenses.

Even with years of experience working on issues related to immigration, Sarr was at a loss when it came to getting her nephew out of North Lake, until she started making calls to advocates in other states. They told her to file for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court.

“I never heard of habeas being filed in immigration cases,” she said. “And they were like, ‘yeah, you have a little slither, but you can slit in here because we have been filing these habeas and getting our people out,’ because that’s the only way right now to go.”

These habeas corpus petitions have forced the government to explain why it’s detaining someone, or release them on bond.

Petitions from immigrant detention centers flood courts

Between Aug. 2025 and mid-Feb. 2026, over 800 claims of unlawful detention have been filed in Michigan’s two federal district courts. Prior to this spike, the last time any petitions were filed was in 2020.

The North Lake Processing Center, one of the country’s largest immigration detention centers, is the main source of habeas petitions in the Western District.

Michigan Public found a wave of more than 800 people in immigration detention in Michigan filed similar petitions over the last 5 months. Judges ruled in most cases that people were being held unlawfully without a hearing, in violation of their due process rights.

That’s what a judge ruled in Ba’s case.

“I don’t want people to go through what we went through.”

After two months in detention, an immigration judge granted Ba a $10,000 bond – an amount that Sarr raised through crowdfunding, since immigration cases require payments up front, in full.

In late January, she and a colleague made the four hour drive to the North Lake detention center to pick up her nephew. She shouted with joy when she saw him, and pulled him in close for a picture in the snow-strewn parking lot.

The time he spent in detention caused Ba to miss his chance to start college this semester, but he’s preparing to enroll soon.

For now, Ba is back to work and is trying to get his life back on track. The trauma of being locked up can make it hard to sleep.

“Sometimes,” he said, “I can’t sleep because I see a lot of friends over [in North Lake].”

Thinking of them troubles him because many are still there, and, according to Ba, “They were there for no reason.”

That’s how he feels about his own case; Ba spent months in detention, filed a federal lawsuit, and paid a steep bond only to end up in the same place he was before he was arrested, with the exact same date for the master hearing in his asylum case.

“Getting him home, it’s a good feeling,” Sarr, Ba’s aunt said. “[But] I don’t want people to go through what we went through to have that feeling.”

For her, the relief was short-lived. One week after she picked Ba up from North Lake, another young person she cares for – her cousin’s son – was arrested by ICE.

Sarr just paid a bond to get him out of North Lake, too.

Originally published on Michigan Public Radio.

Firefighting crews responded to a blaze at the historic Maccabees Building on the campus of Wayne State University Wednesday afternoon. Officials say the fire was contained to one floor and there were no injuries.

Wayne State Chief of Police Anthony Holt says the fire broke out from an HVAC unit.

“Investigations still continue,” says Holt, “but it was an electrical fire that began on the 11th floor on a platform outside the building there.”

Officials say most of the building’s damage appears to be water related, caused by the sprinkler system going off. Detroit Fire Department spokesperson James Harris says crews were on the scene in under five minutes.

“The men and women of the Detroit Fire Department did an awesome job,” says Harris, “awesome response time. No one was injured, everybody got out okay.”

The 15-story Maccabees Building is about 100 years old. It was added to the National Register of Historic places in 1983.

The Maccabees is the former home of WDET. The station operated there for more than two decades, moving out in the 80s following an electrical fire.

Detroit is often broken into two camps: Downtown and the neighborhoods. 

At last night’s state of the city address, Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield declared she was investing in the latter. 

Between cash assistance for pregnant moms, potential pay increases for city employees, new initiatives to help young people, and plans for more affordable housing, Sheffield signaled she doesn’t want to have two separate, unequal classes living in Detroit. She wants everyone to thrive in the city. 

But Detroit has big problems, including homes that need repairs, poor public transit and generational poverty. With federal funds drying up, Sheffield’s administration will need to find a way to pay for all of its services. 

How does she plan to do that? And, what kind of coalition is she building to help her?

Donna Givens Davidson is the president of the Eastside Community Network and of the co-host of the Authentically Detroit podcast. She also was part of Mayor Sheffield’s transition team. Givens Davidson spoke with The Metro‘s Cary Junior II.

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Michigan’s 13th Congressional District covers most of the City of Detroit. Since 2021, Shri Thanedar has represented the area. There has been criticism that the largest majority-Black city in the U.S. is not represented by an African American in Congress.

For his part, Thanedar has shrugged off the criticism and brought millions of federal dollars back to the district.

It has not stopped attempts to primary him.

State Representative Donavan McKinney lives in the 13th. He’s a progressive Democrat who—despite some similarities in their stance on issues—says he is to the left of Thanedar.

McKinney recently sat down with WDET’s Russ McNamara and discussed topics that are coming into play for the primary.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Healthcare

Russ McNamara: What’s your plan to fix healthcare?

State Rep. Donavan McKinney: We need Medicare for All. At the end of the day, people can’t afford life’s necessities, including healthcare.

I’m gonna be honest, it’s a damn shame that Republicans are attacking the ACA (Affordable Care Act) and and the wins on that to cover pre-existing conditions.

I have a story I love to talk about my mom in particular. She has a pre-existing condition, brain tumors, fortunately benign, not cancerous. However, she had to undergo emergency brain surgeries, and it wasn’t for the ACA, she would not be covered.

Wealth gap

RM: How do you plan to address the wealth gap? Because healthcare is tied up all in that too.

DM: The wealth gap is huge, and it’s climbing. Right now, I represent currently the poorest House District in Michigan. $14,000 is the median income. And you know, with folks that’s top of mind is the quality of life issues, right?

It’s unaffordable to live a life right now and I’m running to represent, I believe, the top five poorest [congressional] districts in the country. My constituents, the residents that I currently represent and looking forward to represent in the halls of D.C., they’re struggling with everyday bills. Whether it’s health care, auto insurance, whether it’s child care, housing, you know, you name it, gas, groceries, everything. 

And so for me, it’s all about getting the corporate influence out of our politics, and that’s why we’re running on a campaign that’s not taking any corporate PAC money. Sad to say, my opponent is.

Campaign finance

RM: Why make the choice to not take corporate PAC money? You could easily take the corporate PAC money and use that to campaign, but still vote a different way.

DM: I agree with that premise to some degree, but they also have a lot of influence, right? And so for me, the biggest influence that I want as an elected official should be the people that I represent, and so that’s why we’re taking a hard stance.

I introduced legislation in the state legislature last term and earlier this term that takes all corporate monopoly money out of our politics. It’s called Taking Back Our Power.

We’re targeting insurance companies and the big utility companies, because they have a lot of influence in Lansing, but once I get to DC, what we’re looking to do is overturn Citizens United, and we can do that through congressional action and ensuring that the people’s voices are heard.

Billionaires influencing politics

RM: The amount of money that billionaires are funneling into politics right now has gone up exponentially since Citizens United. Fundamentally and ethically, should billionaires exist?

DM: No. Bottom line? Hell no. I’ll talk about my grandfather in particular, who him and his parents, my great grandparents moved fled from the Jim Crow South to Detroit, Michigan. And one of the most interesting things about my grandfather was he worked at Ford Motor Company for 42 years. And guess what? He never missed a day of work. And I was at his retirement party a few years back, and you know, I asked him, I said, ‘granddad, like, how you never missed a day?’ Like, how was that? Because, you know, my generation, other folks, they’ll miss a day at work within 42 years. He said, “I took pride in what I was doing, and I knew that Ford had my back. I knew that the union had my back, but I knew that Ford Motor Company had my best interest at heart.”

If you fast forward to the year 2026, these companies don’t have the best interest of the workers at heart. What’s happening is they care about the bottom line more so than investing in the human capital, and so they’re figuring out ways to either automate folks out of a job. I mean, what’s happening recently with Stellantis, which, to me, will always be known as Chrysler. And to be honest, I’m a Detroiter, and [I see] how they’re funneling opportunities and increasing bonuses for salaried workers, but for not the workers on the line.

That corporate influence has to end. It has to stop. We have to do what’s right on behalf of the working class people. And right now, they don’t feel like their elected officials are doing the best they can for them.

Data centers and AI

RM: How do you feel about data centers?

DM: This is about understanding what’s possible and then also protecting the environmental harms that are happening from data centers across the country. In Michigan, the Democrats under the democratic trifecta, we led something called the Clean Energy and Jobs Act, and so we were able to ensure that protections for rate payers on water as well as for electricity and energy use are protected.

But in other states, and I’m seeing horror stories coming out of Memphis and Georgia. They have weak laws on the state level, but on a federal level, what’s happening is the AI groups, the folks, the mega sites that are trying to come to our communities, they’re influencing our legislators right now in Congress trying to pull back as many environmental protections from the people. And so for me, I cannot in good conscience support data centers if they’re going to continue to do environmental harm on our communities.

Now, if we can get that together alongside community solar and things of that nature, like we already have in place here in our state, then I can get on board. But in reality, this is all about the oligarchs, the corporate class, taking advantage of the people who live in our communities.

RM: So what’s your reaction when you hear that there’s room for a data center out near City Airport on Detroit’s east side?

DM: Just to paint the picture, in Michigan and other places of the country, we’ve already have data centers running. The question is mega sites. These are new to the equation, and so with the mega sites coming in I don’t necessarily support it until they don’t have an environmental justice plan that they follow. Until that all of those needs are met, and the community says no, then I got to rock with my community, with my constituents.

U.S. funding of Israel

RM: In 2024, the Biden Administration and the Kamala Harris campaign refused to change their stance toward funding Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. I just want your thoughts on that conflict, because it’s still relevant here now two years on.

DM: Because I’m at the state level, you don’t really deal with foreign policy, but now that I’m running for a Congressional seat, I’m learning more and more about it. Some people might disagree with me when I say this, right now, from the experts, groups that are on the ground every single day, to the United Nations. What’s happening over there is a genocide.

Now, does that excuse what happened on October 7? No, I condemn any type of violence, any type of war, no matter who it is, because a human life is a human life. But I can’t in good conscience at the federal level support sending billions—and sometimes trillions over decades—for bombs and weapons to kill families and children. When literally in my own neighborhood I have to witness and see my neighbors struggling day to day, and we can’t find any type of money for them to have health care, for them to have good parks of recreation, for them to have real mass transit in our communities, access to clean and affordable water.

Every time we talk about progressivism and the things that the community honestly want and American people need, we say we can’t fund it. We say we don’t have the money, but right now, in Iran and different parts of the world, we’re spending over billions of dollars a day, and people are fed up with their entire politics. That’s why they don’t engage. That’s why they’re not involved. So for me, this is deeper than politics. This is deeper than “Oh, you’re pro Jew, you’re pro Palestinian.” I’m pro human life. I’m pro bringing resources back home to my district.

Where should the Democratic Party go next?

RM: Do you think there’s a leadership problem within the Democratic Party?

DM: I think there’s a leadership problem top down. I think if you look at the polling for our current administration, our current president, the numbers are like terrible, but the numbers on the Democratic Party is even lower than Trump’s.

Right now, [the people] don’t see the Democratic Party as the party of the people. I view the party as the party of the people. But right now, what’s happening is Democrats and Republicans are viewed the same when it comes to certain things, and that is literally pleading and doing everything they can for the corporate oligarchs in the corporate class. And right now for working people that are in my district struggling, they’re working two three jobs just to try to scrape by to make ends meet, let alone figuring out ways to thrive and have an disposable income, having health care and a retirement to look forward to. They have nothing, and so right now, they need a party that’s going to step up for them.

That’s why I’m a big believer that the party is going to have to make a choice. You either going to continue to serve the corporate class or you’re going to serve the working people. And that’s why we’re not taking corporate money, and that’s why my opponent is in trouble, because he continues to take corporate PAC money, AIPAC and everything under the sun.

RM: The right for transgender people to exist is under attack from the Trump Administration. What do you plan to do to protect some of the most marginalized people in this country?

DM: At the end of the day, human life is human life. I don’t I don’t care how you see yourself, define yourself at the end of the day, if you are a human being in this country, I will fight for you. So for me, making sure that at the end of the day, trans, Black folks, poor people, formerly incarcerated, our veterans, all of these groups are the most vulnerable populations of our communities, our seniors, our elders and our children— they need somebody that’s going to fight for them.

And so I have nothing better to do but to fight for human rights, no matter how you slice it, no matter where you live, no matter who you love, no no matter your race, your creed, your color, it doesn’t matter. And so yeah, to answer your question: I’m going to fight for every single person, not only in my district, but across the country.

RM: That sounds like some All Lives Matter kind of talk though…

DM: You could call it, All Lives Matter. But in reality, this is just common sense. Like, I’mma be honest Russ—the politics of the day, I have to partake in it, because I’m an elected official. But I like to see myself as a public servant first, and that’s what not only the Democratic party, the Republican Party, everybody in this system has forgotten.

It’s the service to the humans. We’re all humans. We might be different. We might like come from different backgrounds. But the reason why I’m sitting in office right now as a state rep in the district where nobody told me a Black kid can win in Macomb County, the reason why I won every single precinct is because we talked about the real issues, and they understood. They looked at me eye to eye at those doors, and they say, “You know what, I believe in this guy, I know he’s going to fight for me.”

It doesn’t matter what your politics is, I believe in you, and I’m going to fight for you no matter what, and that and that’s all I can do. I will fight for folks all across the congressional district of the mighty 13th.

Calls to abolish ICE

RM: There’s been an increase in the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is attempting to turn a warehouse into a detention center. There’s been a growing movement from the left wing of the Democratic Party to ‘abolish ICE’. Where do you stand on that?

DM: We must abolish ICE as it is right now, because at the end of the day, what’s happening in Romulus is not only in our congressional district, and it impacts people—it impacts folks all across our state.

One of the biggest issues with ICE in particular is that they’re not only targeting what Trump is calling the worst of the worst. No, they’re actually targeting American citizens, and they are known in recent history to not only kill American citizens, but deport American citizens. And I’m born and raised in this country. If you deport me, where the hell are you going to send me? That is my biggest question, and so I can’t in good conscience support this department.

My opponent, sad to say, was one of the one of the few Democrats last summer to thank the department, voted with the Republicans to do so. [He also] voted at least a couple times to increase the department’s budget. [NOTE: The vote thanking ICE also was tied to a measure condemning antisemitism] Because the community has risen up, and I’ve been hitting him hard on it, he decides, because it’s politically favorable to switch his tune and tries to introduce legislation to abolish ICE with no community input.

I introduced legislation last fall, long before we knew ICE was going to be here in Michigan, making sure that everybody has access to due process no matter your immigration status, making sure that ICE agents are unmasked when they conduct business here in our communities, and ensuring that at the end of the day, everybody has access to resources, no matter who you are.

We are a border city. We’re an international crossing. ICE has been terrorizing our communities, especially in southwest Detroit and the surrounding areas, for years now, over a decade.

And so where was he at? Where was my opponent at? We were there every step of the way, fighting back with our community, and we’re going to continue to fight back.

And so I’m proud of—I got to give a shout out to our Attorney General, Dana Nessel. I got to give a shout out to the Mayor Bob McCray and the whole entire Romulus city council, because they came together collectively as one, and they’re fighting against right now. They got a lawsuit right now to slow down a process of ice opening up that detention facility in Romulus.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak to the nation at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday, with the White House saying he will deliver an update on the war in Iran.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday the war with Iran could end in two to three weeks, while dismissing concerns over global oil supply disruptions. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said U.S. objectives have largely been achieved, even as uncertainty remains about next steps.

Watch live at 9 p.m.

A new report from the Detroit Regional Chamber is ringing the alarm with warnings that the house is on fire.

The report states that despite the resurgence of the City of Detroit the region itself is declining in national rankings of key economic areas, including per capita income education and population growth.

Chamber CEO Sandy Baruah says Michigan has fallen further and faster in key metric areas than any other state in the country. He spoke with WDET’s Bre’Anna Tinsley about the issue.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity

Sandy Baruah, CEO of Detroit Regional Chamber: The state of Michigan and the Detroit region both really need to understand where we are in terms of our national peers. It’s hard to get where you’re going if you don’t know where we are, and our polling shows that Michiganians believe that Michigan is essentially dead average in key metrics such as our K-12 performance, our per capita income, our unemployment rate, our ability to attract high tech jobs. The percentage of our adults in our society that have a college degree, they think we’re dead average, but in reality, in most of those categories, we’re in the bottom 10, and we have to turn this around.

Bre’Anna Tinsley, WDET: Where do you think that disconnect is coming from?

SB: To be perfectly candid, I don’t think anyone has told the Michigan public where we really stand.

We have been dropping pretty dramatically since the year 2000. For example, as recently as the year 2000 we were a top 20 state for per capita income,  we were a top 20 state for fourth grade reading and K-12 performance. In both those categories, we’re now in the bottom 10.

So, we have fallen further and faster in some of these key metrics than any other state in history. You know, Republicans will point to the Democrats, and Democrats will point to the Republicans, and we think that’s just all bunk, because this fall has occurred under Democrat and Republican governors. It’s fallen under Democrat and Republican legislators. It’s fallen under, you know, mixed government over time.

So, we need a bipartisan, long-term path forward if we’re really going to address this issue.

BT: So if it’s not a political issue, do we know what the actual cause for this decline is?

SB: Michigan, as a purple state, has a tendency to ping pong back and forth between different political, economic and education strategies in the old days, you know, the parties would find a way to compromise and and kind of create some long-term solutions.

In Michigan, what we do is we go from a kind of a Republican approach for a few years, and we go to a Democratic approach for a few years.

We shift economic development strategies, we shift education strategies and the ping ponging back and forth, the inconsistency has not allowed us to really create a path forward, because successful change takes time. You can’t expect it in one legislative cycle or even one term as governor, it just doesn’t work that way.

BT: And so do you think that is the biggest change that needs to happen, or are there any other solutions that you have on how the state can improve?

SB: Well, I mean, certainly, you know, as a policy and economic development organization, the Detroit Regional Chamber certainly has our suggested solutions on various policy issues, but we really stress that what is desperately needed in the state of Michigan is the is the ceasing of the ping ponging policy back and forth between what you can call a  left policy or a right policy, because businesses won’t come here. They won’t invest, if one, they’re uncertain about what the policy environment is going to be. Businesses certainly won’t come here if we exacerbate the reputation that what was policy one year will be taken away the next year.

If we want to grow jobs, if we want to grow incomes, if we want to grow the percentage of people with post-secondary degrees, such as a four year degree or a community college degree or a skilled trade certificate, that’s just not going to happen if we just keep ping ponging back and forth.

BT: So the situation, though, is not all doom and gloom. There are some highlights in the state of Michigan, in the Detroit region, where exactly are we succeeding right now?

SB: There are areas right I mean, certainly when you look at some of the municipalities, the city of Detroit, obviously, is a shiny example that has been held up, not just nationally, but internationally, as the turnaround city really, of the globe. It would be hard to think of a place that’s been more celebrated over the last decade than the City of Detroit for all that has happened, but also places like Grand Rapids, they’ve been on a 25-year growth and development trajectory. Kalamazoo has been on a long-term growth trajectory.

The second is that we are an innovation powerhouse. What we’re not good at, however, is really capitalizing on our innovation that occurs from our universities, Michigan, Michigan State, Wayne State and Michigan Tech and in attracting even more new high level young talent that will start jobs, start new companies. You know, that is a huge plus.

And then, thirdly, we have all of these new innovation nodes being developed, Michigan central new lab, the University of Michigan Innovation Center, the Dan Gilbert Health Innovation Center on Gratiot. I mean, these are all amazing new innovation centers.

Many of the systems designed to keep us safe sometimes harm the most vulnerable among us. That’s often true of people who face financial hardship.

Detroit’s 36th District Court is trying to stop that from continuing. Chief Judge William McConico is running a court-wide amnesty program through April 2, waiving all late fees, penalties, and warrant costs for adjudicated cases when the original fine is paid.

McConico spoke with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent about this, bail reform and controversy surrounding one of his judges.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro

Mayor Mary Sheffield will deliver her first State of the City address at Mumford High School.

The annual Detroit event marks a historic milestone as Sheffield becomes the first woman to deliver a State of the City address as mayor. Holding the speech at Mumford underscores her focus on Detroit’s neighborhoods and young people as central to the city’s future.

You can listen to the Mayor’s address at 7 p.m. on WDET 101.9 FM or livestream on the web or in our app.

The address can also be found on the City’s cable channels; Comcast Channel 10 and AT&T Channel 99 in Detroit, and streamed on the City’s official YouTube, Facebook, X/Twitter, and Instagram pages.

Despite a year passing since the ice storm, damages are still visible in Northern Michigan forests with trees broken in half, uprooted, and debris crowding forests. 

Cody Stevens, the DNR’s Northeast Lower Peninsula District Manager, says they’re still working to clean up and restore damaged forests. 

Damaged trees

Red pine and Jack pine trees experienced the worst of the damage, so they were the DNR’s top priority for clean-up.

Stevens describes, “the Red pine and Jack pine trees [were] totally snapped off. Those trees were just dead; there was no recovering for them. That’s why you see a lot more harvests in the Red pine right away.”

As the DNR has made progress with cleaning up these forests, Stevens says they’re switching gears to focus on hardwood forests, which contain species such as Maple, Oak, and Aspen trees.

Many hardwood trees were able to grow through the damages of the storm. However, Stevens explains that despite their growth, there’s likely pockets of rotting wood in the trees, and they’re unable to grow at their typical rate. 

Once forests are cleared of damaged trees, the DNR’s next step is to replant trees. 

Restoring damaged environments

Because so much timber was being harvested and sold after the storm, the market became oversaturated, and the value of timber dropped.

Stevens says this affected the DNR’s budget for restoration, as they rely on timber sales to fund forest development. 

Stevens explains, “Our intent is to spend some of the work project money that we receive to reforest all of those stands. So, we’ll be replanting Red pine on the majority of those sites back to ensure that there’s a forest for the future.”

The restoration process is far from over, as Stevens expects it to take them at least 5 years to recover. 

Of the 3,000 miles of state forest roads that were blocked by the storm, Stevens says the DNR has roughly 250 miles left to clear. 

“There is active timber harvesting going on at a little bit higher rate than what there typically would be, trying to salvage all this timber,” he says. “So, when folks do go into the woods, just have their eyes out looking for timber producers, making sure there’s no conflict on their roads.” 

This story is a part of WDET’s ongoing series, the Detroit Tree Canopy Project.

Thousands rallied against the actions of President Donald Trump across Michigan on Saturday.

In Ferndale, about three thousand people lined Woodward Avenue near 9 Mile Road to express their displeasure.

Barb Anness of Rochester Hills believes the protests can bring about change.

“I’m very heartened by the diversity of people that I see out here, and I think Americans are at their best when we come together and we speak with one voice when something is wrong, and we call it out and we work for change in a positive way,” Anness said.

Anness says her objections to the cuurent administration fall outside of partisan politics.

“For me, it’s not a left or right issue, it’s a right or wrong issue. We have authority in government that are not adhering to norms and laws, and it needs to change, and this November, we have an opportunity to speak with our voice through our ballot in the ballot booth,” Anness said.

Anness came to Ferndale to protest with a friend – Holly Haran of Royal Oak. Haran isn’t happy with much of what’s coming from the federal government right now.

“There’s so much material that we can make signs for because there’s so many things that are being targeted,” Haran said. “Our voter rights, education, health care, there’s so many things that are being taken away. So and when they’re gone, it’s going to be really hard to get them back.”

A retired schoolteacher, Haran says she’s not happy with the tactics Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are using—especially near classrooms.

“It’s a really bad position to put educators in, because our job is to help kids,” Haran said.

Romulus protests proposed ICE facility

ICE was the primary topic of discussion in Romulus, where protesters gathered in front of a proposed detention facility on Cogswell Street.

Maxwell Pizzurro made the trip to the city from Chesterfield Township.

“I just think it’s really gross with these new camps that are opening up and how they’re just treating regular people,” Pizzurro said.

“What’s the difference between me and my family who came here [from Sicily] and a new family from Ghana? Or a new family from Portugal or Brazil? There’s no difference between us. We’re all just looking to make a good life for us and our families,” Pizzurro said.

Terry Golden Davis is an Army vet and grew up in Romulus. He says things have gotten so bad he turned up for his first-ever protest.  

“Somebody’s got to stand up to this hypocrisy. This is so sad. I spent hours making  signs. Hours,” Davis said.

“Nobody wants this. The should use it [the warehouse] for something, but not this,” Davis said.

Clad in a Harley Davidson jacket, lifelong Romulus resident Ken Cullen is concerned about the mistreatment of detainees.

“I mean, this is a warehouse. There’s no showers. There’s no bathrooms. There’s nothing,” Cullen said. “You can’t just house people in a warehouse, and expect them to live.”

Gerod Funderburg does not want the facility in his city. and he doesn’t believe President Trump that the detainees are hardened criminals either.

“They are people who are looking for better place to stay, better place to live, better opportunities for themselves—and he’s not providing it. If this is going to be a jail, we don’t want a jail around the corner from our homes,” Funderburg said.

Romulus City Council unanimously passed a resolution to denounce the ICE detention facility, and more recently filed a lawsuit alongside Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to stop its establishment.

Department of Homeland Security agents guarded the warehouse during Saturday’s protest, and approached U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib to redirect her when she tried parking in the driveway. 

Representative Dylan Wegela represents Romulus in the state house. He says abolition is the only way.

“We do not want this detention center here. We want, instead, to defund ICE. We want to abolish ICE, and we want to prosecute ICE.”

Many detainees have died while in ICE custody over the past year, and three American citizens have been killed by federal agents during President Trump’s push for mass deportations.

What people see as priorities

Wegela says President Trump is focused on the wrong things.

“He’s entered us into a war with Iran that is costing $2 billion a day,” Wegela said. “Instead of our money going towards bombing, say, a girl’s school in Iran, we would rather it be spent here to make sure that we are investing in our roads and our schools.”

Steve Conn of Detroit says if the people don’t speak out about injustice happening towards immigrants then the situation will get worse.

“We got to make sure people understand. If you don’t stand up now for immigrants, you too will be in there,” Conn said.

White House dismisses protests

Estimates place 9 million people in the streets for the ‘No Kings’ protests. The White House is dismissive.

“The only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

Ken Cullen is unmoved by that statement.

“Everything we hear is lies and propaganda. The truth is out here with all the people,” Cullen said. “They are showing we’re not that stupid.”