U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner said Friday that illegal immigrants will no longer be permitted to live in taxpayer-funded housing.
Turner made the comments during an appearance on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
In March, Turner and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced a joint initiative titled “American Housing Programs for American Citizens.”
The program seeks to end what officials described as the “wasteful misappropriation of taxpayer dollars to benefit illegal aliens instead of American citizens.”
Turner said HUD has already taken steps to enforce the policy by contacting housing authorities.
“President Trump is serious not only in cleaning up the crime in our streets, but also American citizens will be prioritized when it comes to living in HUD-funded, government-funded housing,” Turner said.
He added that HUD has issued a request to the D.C. Housing Authority for a full list of residents, including their citizenship or immigration status.
“We just sent out a letter to the D.C. Housing Authority, and it has been received by them. And, as you said, they have 30 days to give us a full, comprehensive account of everyone living inside of D.C. housing that are receiving Section 8 vouchers or any type of HUD funding,” Turner stated.
According to Turner, the department is seeking detailed information from housing authorities.
“We want the names, the address, the number of people in the unit, the size of the unit, the cost of the unit. And they must give us their American citizenship status or eligible immigration status. No longer will we allow illegal aliens to live in taxpayer-funded housing here in America,” he said.
Turner criticized the Biden-Harris administration for failing to gather such information.
“In the last administration, in the Biden administration, they turned a blind eye. They didn’t collect the data,” Turner said.
“But those days are over. We are collecting the data to make sure they’re illegal aliens. And for that criminal activity, no one doing criminal activity is living in HUD-funded housing, which is literally on the backs of taxpayers in America.”
The change in policy comes as the United States continues to face significant challenges related to illegal immigration. Federal officials estimated that there were 10.8 million encounters with illegal migrants at the border since fiscal year 2021.
The increase strained resources in major cities, with mayors of sanctuary jurisdictions such as New York City and Denver requesting additional federal funding in 2023 to cope with the influx.
By 2024, the surge in migration was linked to worsening conditions in the housing market.
Reports indicated the U.S. faced a shortage of between 4 million and 7 million housing units.
Developers struggled to meet demand, and rental costs continued to rise. Nationally, rents increased 20.9 percent since 2021, compounding the impact of inflation on American families.
Research has also shown significant costs to taxpayers associated with illegal immigration.
The Center for Immigration Studies estimated that 59 percent of illegal immigrant households access one or more welfare programs, with the overall burden on taxpayers amounting to approximately $42 billion.
Turner said HUD’s enforcement efforts are aimed at ensuring that taxpayer dollars are used to support American citizens in need.
The department has signaled that it will continue issuing similar directives to housing authorities across the country as part of the broader initiative announced earlier this year.
This is how Democrats buy votes. All of these illegals ‘registered’ as voters while waiting at the Mexican border by taxpayer-funded NGO’s who were working for the DNC. Their generic voter registration forms were sent to DNC HQ and re-distributed to states where there were tight races to flip elections in favor of Democrats. Democrat Congressmen then ‘give’ benefits to these illegals in their districts to ensure that their ‘votes’ go to Democrats. They also then count these illegals as legal voters to help in the census count to get more money for their districts at the expense of American taxpayers. This is all a giant scam Democrats use to screw American citizens. This is why Democrats are so opposed to DOGE and Trump wanting to cut funding for these illegal government programs.
I guess better late than never, but I would have thought they would have done this on day one. Does this mean the taxpayers have been paying to house illegals for the first eight months of the Trump administration?