Michigan Man Lied About Iraqi Mom Dying After Trump’s Immigration Order

Following the implementation of US President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration, the perfect story emerged to paint the president as a heartless maniac, irresponsibly ruining innocent lives. Those who oppose him quickly, and widely, shared the story. The problem is, it was a complete fabrication.

A gut-wrenching tale was shared by a Michigan man named Mike Hager, who asserted that he and his family had been stopped when returning from Iraq to his home state, after the order was put into action. He told his story to Fox 2, who reported that while Hager was cleared, the rest of his family, including his ill and elderly mother, was not. He went on to say that his mother died, while being denied entry into the US where she could receive medical treatment.

His mother actually had died five days before the order was signed.

"That's true. The 22nd of January, his mom died," Imam Husham Al-Hussainy, leader of the Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center in Dearborn, told Fox 2 News. "She did die but that was a couple weeks ago — before the ban."

The imam told the station that Hager had contacted him January 19, one day before Trump took office, and told him that his mother was gravely ill. He notified the imam that he was flying to Iraq to be by her side.

She died three days later, in Iraq. Trump had not yet signed the controversial order.

"There is confusion. There is a mix that they have to distinguish between good refugees and bad refugees and if this is what it takes to stop them for a while, to screen them, that's fine for the security of the country," the imam, who voted for Trump, said of the airport protests.

The station also found that Hager had posted to Facebook about his mother’s death on January 22. If only they had checked his Facebook before reporting a fake news story that helped to whip the nation into a frenzy.

Sadly, once a story goes viral, it is very hard to correct. The follow-up report, that their story was a total fabrication, will not be viewed as many times as the viral original.