EL PASO, TEXAS — The Trump administration has published a notice in Wednesday’s Federal Register that effectively denies lawfully present immigrants access to housing programs. The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) notice reinterprets a 1996 law to restrict some health programs to deny services to sexual assault and domestic violence survivors with special “U” visas, child abuse survivors with “Special Immigrant Juvenile Status,” people with Temporary Protected Status who’ve fled war, natural disaster, or other emergency, and other lawfully present immigrants. Also excluded are people approved for lawful permanent residency to whom the Department of Homeland Security has not yet issued “green cards.”
The notice applies to a range of HUD programs administered by the agency’s Office of Community Planning and Development. Some covered programs make grants to state and local governments and to nonprofits. These include the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and the CDBG Disaster Recovery program and Continuum of Care, which helps communities find housing options for homeless families and people domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking, and others.
Importantly, the notice sends conflicting messages on status verification. While it clearly indicates that the immigration status of people seeking help through HUD programs must be verified, it also clearly indicates that the agency is not yet issuing guidance on verification requirements for state or local governments or nonprofits granted HUD funding through covered programs.
The consequences of this redetermination are expected to extend well beyond immigrants excluded under the notice, because immigrant families typically include some people who are U.S. citizens, some who are undocumented, and some who are lawfully present immigrants. Raising concerns about immigration status in connection with housing and economic development programs is expected to deter eligible people from seeking help, because of concerns about consequences for family members. With immigrant families accounting for 28% of the U.S. population, the eligibility change threatens every community in the country.
In response to the notice, PIF released the following statement from its director, Adriana Cadena.
“Only this administration would attack immigrant families with low incomes on the day before Thanksgiving. And only this administration would do it in such a reckless way – telling governments and nonprofits that the rules have changed, but not how to comply with the new rules. Since we can’t count on a hyperpartisan Congress to right the wrongs of an administration gone wild, the American people must raise their voices to tell the Trump administration enough is enough.”
