Housing Chief Ben Carson Seeks to Exclude Illegal Migrants from Subsidized Apartments

President Donald Trump’s housing agency plans to exclude illegal migrants from subsidized housing, likely freeing up more cheap housing for the many Americans who face rising real estate costs because of legal and illegal immigration.

“Because of past loopholes in HUD [Housing and Urban Development agency] guidance, illegal aliens were able to live in free public housing desperately needed by so many of our own citizens,” an official told the Daily Caller. “As illegal aliens attempt to swarm our borders, we’re sending the message that you can’t live off of American welfare on the taxpayers’ dime.”

“There may be millions of qualifying U.S. citizens and legal U.S. residents languishing on waitlists for housing assistance,” the HUD agency said in a statement.

Nationwide, housing and rental prices for Americans and legal immigrants have spiked as Congress invited and allowed at least 45 million legal and illegal immigrants into the United States since the 1970s. The resulting competition for housing has negated post-1970s wage gains, pressured many African-Americans and whites out of California and New York  towards the South. The high housing costs likely have also nudged down birth rates as married couples struggle to pay for their housing, while boosting revenues and stock values for property owners.

The rising prices caused by immigration have also shifted wealth from rural and heartland cities to the major cities on the coast. An April 18 article in the New York Times admitted:

International migration — which includes immigration and other international moves regardless of citizenship or country of birth — is increasingly important for population growth in the highest-density counties of large metros.

The HUD policy will end a regulation which allows illegals to get some federal subsidy as long as there is one qualified person in the family unit. However, that one qualified person is often an “anchor baby” child recently born in the United States. The pending rule would require that all people living in a subsidized dwelling to be screed through a federal database dubbed the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements.

But Democrats and progressives are likely to oppose the pro-American policy. The Washington Post reported, under the headline, “Trump proposal would evict undocumented immigrants from public housing” that:

“This is going to make people much more afraid because they are going to think they will not be able to get a green card or citizenship if they access benefits,” said Susan Popkin, a fellow and housing expert at the Urban Institute. “It’s really going to affect people who are legally eligible for housing but who are now afraid to ask for help.”

…

“What makes this proposal seem extraordinarily cruel is that it’s looking backwards into existing families who are paying their rent and doing what they are supposed to do,” [Adrianne Todman, chief executive of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials] said. “I’m not even quite sure how a judge would look at this, because when you evict, you have to have some type of cause.”

…

“Secretary Carson’s cruel proposal would break up families and destabilize communities, while doing nothing to shorten waiting lists,” [Diane Yentel, president and chief executive of the National Low Income Housing Coalition] said. “HUD falsely claims the change is proposed out of concern for long waiting lists, when they know well that it would do nothing to free up new units. The true purpose may be part of this administration’s effort to instill fear in immigrants throughout the country.”

Each year, roughly four million young Americans join the workforce after graduating from high school or university.

But the federal government then imports about 1.1 million legal immigrants, refreshes a resident population of roughly 1.5 million white-collar guest workers, in addition to approximately 500,000 blue-collar visa workers, and also tolerates about eight million illegal workers and the inflow of hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants.

This federal policy of flooding the market with cheap white-collar graduates and blue-collar foreign labor is intended to boost economic growth for investors.

This policy works by shifting enormous wealth from young employees towards older investors, even as it also widens wealth gaps, reduces high-tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, hurts children’s schools and college education, pushes Americans away from high-tech careers, and sidelines millions of marginalized Americans, including many who are now struggling with fentanyl addictions.