Absurd as it sounds, some 32,000 illegal alien households receive federal housing assistance, with many thousands more on waiting lists. The Trump administration proposes to stop the madness.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced plans to scrap Clinton-era regulations that allow illegal aliens to get assistance without so much as having to disclose their immigration status. Additionally, Section 214 of the Housing and Community Development Act allows illegal aliens to reside in public housing if they are living with relatives who are eligible.
Under HUD’s yet-to-be-published rules, not only must leaseholders using public housing be legal residents, but the government would vet all applicants for assistance through the government’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database to weed out illegal aliens. HUD says it intends to prohibit any illegal alien from residing in subsidized housing, even if they are not direct recipients.
Naturally, former HUD secretary and Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro blasted the very idea of withholding a government benefit from illegally present individuals.
“Once again, the Trump administration is using the immigrant community as a punching bag. The bottom line is that our government is terrorizing families — first with ICE raids, now with evictions,” the ex-San Antonio mayor fumed.
Limping along in the early polls, the open-borders Castro is hyperventilating here.
If — after congressional review and a 60-day public comment period — the new rule takes effect, illegal aliens in public housingwould be given up to 18 months to relocate. Neither HUD nor the Department of Homeland Security has said a word about deportations.
A National Housing Law Project attorney downplayed the proposal’s impact. Karlo Ng pointed out that 32,000 illegal-alien households are a veritable drop in the bucket when “millions of families are either on the [HUD] waitlist or would like to be on the waitlist.”
Ng didn’t offer what a more impactful number of illegal beneficiaries might look like, yet her bucket comparison resonated with even a full-fledged lefty like Cher.
“I understand helping struggling immigrants, but my city (Los Angeles) isn’t taking care of its own,” tweeted the singer-actress, asserting that 50,000 U.S. citizens are living on LA’s streets.
Outside of detention, whether one or one million illegal aliens receive housing benefits at taxpayer expense while homeless Americans sleep on the streets, it’s too many and too much to bear.