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Immigration has become one of the most important issues for politicians and media in the run-up to the 2024 general election, with Congress at loggerheads over changes to U.S. border policy.
Democrats and Republicans have engaged in back-and-forth arguments that are failing to resolve the increasing numbers of crossings, the former accusing the latter of refusing to sponsor relevant legislation that some corners of the GOP believe is ineffective.
With no new legislation in sight, some have claimed that President Joe Biden's administration hit on a new plan in which American families could shoulder the burden of immigration in exchange for free labor from migrants.
The Claim
A post on X, formerly Twitter, by real estate businessman Grant Cardone, on February 18, 2023, viewed 271,700 times, said: "Is this real ?? Can white people do this without it being considered slavery? 🚨JUST IN: President Biden announces tax incentives for families willing to take in slav—migrants in a new "Housing for Labor" initiative. "You can now apply to keep a migrant in your home in exchange for cooking, cleaning, picking crops, and landscaping." - via@IRSnews.
The Facts
There is no "Housing for Labor" program in which migrants live with U.S. residents in exchange for household work.
The claim by Cardone, whose family has helped fundraise toward paying former President Donald Trump's recent legal costs, is based on a post by the account U.S. Ministry of Truth on February 16, 2024.
The Ministry of Truth describes its content as "Satire or prophecy depending on the day."
The post has been viewed more than 17 million times. It falsely quotes the IRS' News Feed on X as its source. The IRS has not announced a "Housing for Labor" program.
While the Ministry of Truth is a parody account, the post blurs the line between satirical and legitimate content.
Parody news outlets such as the The Onion typically riff on the beat of another story, stretching out its logic or highlighting its flaws for comic intent. The absurdity of these riffs often, although not always, helps indicate intent.
By contrast, Ministry of Truth's post appears to be a comment on real policy communication, partially spelling "slaves" and rephrasing to "migrants," seemingly editorializing the language of a new government proposal. Criticizing the proposal appears to be the post's purpose, adding a layer of misdirection which obscures that the "Housing for Labor" initiative is fake.
The linguistic tone and false accreditation to the IRS further obscure the comedic intent.
Ministry of Truth joked in another message that the IRS had "untagged" itself from the original post, adding "Some intern had a really fun afternoon answering calls." This, too, may create the impression that the IRS was managing damage control around a real story, not that it had become the victim of an online prank.
Newsweek has reached out to media representatives for the White House and IRS via email for comment.
On February 18, Ministry of Truth posted another message attempting to assert its content was intended as parody, writing "⚠️The tweets from this account are ALWAYS accurate, serious, primary-source news.
"Anyone who tells you these tweets are parody or satire are jealous of your intellect and patriotism."
Whatever its intent, the post has appeared to convince some people, or at least provided the opportunity to dupe others.
Among those who reposted the claim was conspiracy theorist Dom Lucre, who wrote in his repost, viewed 2.6 million times: "I will be applying for 2 slaves next weekend thanks to Joe Biden's new "Housing for Labor" initiative, hopefully I can get two slavic males so I can finally get to experience what it was like being a Black Democrat in the 1800s."
The government does offer sponsorship programs in which families, among other groups, can help refugees resettle in the U.S., but this has nothing to do with the fictitious "Housing for Labor" initiative.
Newsweek has investigated a number of stories recently that have been weakly defended as parody or satire, including false claims that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got engaged after the Super Bowl and that Tom Hanks had an Academy Award stripped from him over reputational concerns.
The Ruling
False.
There is no Housing for Labor policy. The claim came from a viral post published by a "parody" social media account, which falsely attributed the policy to the IRS.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
About the writer
Tom Norton is Newsweek's Fact Check reporter, based in London. His focus is reporting on misinformation and misleading information in ... Read more