Amber Athey | White House Correspondent
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will be proposing a new rule that further prevents illegal immigrants from taking advantage of public housing assistance, The Daily Caller has learned.
Section 214 of the Housing and Community Development Act prevents non-citizens from obtaining financial housing assistance. However, the presence of so-called “mixed families” has complicated the enforcement of the rule. Illegal immigrants have previously been able to skirt the restrictions by living with family members who are U.S. citizens and receive subsidized housing through HUD. (RELATED: Trump’s HUD Official Moves To The Projects In The Bronx)
HUD intends to roll out a proposal over the next few weeks that prohibits any illegal immigrant from residing in subsidized housing, even if they are not the direct recipient of the benefit. HUD currently estimates that tens of thousands of HUD-assisted households are headed by non-citizens.
Families who are caught gaming the system by allowing illegal immigrants to stay with them either have to comply with the new rule or they will be forced to move out of their residence.
Households will be screened through the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or “SAVE,” program.
An administration official told the Caller that this is a continuation of the president’s “America First” policies.
“This proposal gets to the whole point Cher was making in her tweet that the President retweeted. We’ve got our own people to house and we need to take care of our citizens,” the official said. “Because of past loopholes in HUD guidance, illegal aliens were able to live in free public housing desperately needed by so many of our own citizens. 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.”
According to HUD, there are currently millions of American citizens on the waitlist for government-assisted housing because the department does not have enough resources to provide every eligible family with financial assistance.
The president has repeatedly lamented the drain that illegal immigration has on resources for American families.
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