National Housing Law Project on Trump’s Cruel Directive to Take Away Federal Funding from Housing Authorities Who Protect Immigrants: We Must Keep Families Whole and Housed 

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Housing Law Project today released the following statement by Eviction Initiative Project Director Marie Claire Tran-Leung in response to reports that Trump’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is threatening to take away federal funding from public housing authorities who protect immigrant families:

“No matter where we come from, how long we’ve lived here, or what language we speak, our country has the resources to ensure that all of us have a safe place to call home. But Trump and Turner are threatening to take away the funding necessary to keep millions of people housed, despite tenants across the country struggling to make ends meet. Rather than address sky-high rents, increasing evictions, and record homelessness, Trump and Turner are forcing public housing authorities to divert their limited resources away from affordable housing and towards wasteful policy designed to cause fear and hardship among immigrant families and scare them into self-evicting. Trump is scapegoating immigrants to destroy the federal housing programs, seize even more control, and continue his unlawful power grab. We reject this blatant attempt to weaponize the HUD housing programs as a tool for violence. We will protect immigrants, HUD tenants, and fight to keep every family whole and housed.”

Families with mixed immigration status have the right to live in HUD housing under federal law. These families include some family members who get housing assistance from HUD and others who don’t because of their immigration status, legal or otherwise. In 2019, the National Housing Law Project helped lead tenants and advocates to stop the first Trump administration from evicting and separating immigrant families.