- What Happened: HUD Secretary Scott Turner declared a "zero tolerance" policy to remove undocumented immigrants from taxpayer-funded public housing.
- Why It Matters: The policy ends the "roommate loophole" that allowed mixed-status families to live in public housing with prorated subsidies.
- Bottom Line: A 2019 HUD analysis found over 108,000 people in households with at least one undocumented immigrant occupying public housing, units that American citizens and legal residents have been waiting in line for.
The Trump administration just sent a very clear message to illegal immigrants living in taxpayer-funded public housing, and HUD put it right in the headline of their own announcement: "Illegals, Ineligibles, and Fraudsters: Pack Your Bags."
.@SecretaryTurner announced a new proposed rule to require proof of U.S. citizenship or eligible status for every resident in HUD-funded housing, including “mixed status households.”
— Department of Housing and Urban Development (@HUDgov) February 19, 2026
With this proposed rule, HUD will ensure that taxpayer-funded housing benefits only go to… pic.twitter.com/IrWFZa26eJ
HUD Secretary Scott Turner declared a zero tolerance policy Thursday to remove undocumented immigrants from public housing units across the country, saying they were "riding the coattails of American taxpayers." The department will ramp up scrutiny of public housing rolls and will sanction any housing authority that fails to properly verify the legal status of its residents.
🚨BREAKING: HUD moves to close “Mixed Status Households” roommate loophole, tells "illegals, ineligibles, and fraudsters" to "pack your bags!"
— Lynnwood Times (@LynnwoodTimes) February 20, 2026
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner announced a new proposed rule to require proof of U.S. citizenship or… pic.twitter.com/awJqdSkgie
The policy is a revival of a 2019 plan championed by Stephen Miller, designed to address the massive backlog of Americans waiting for public housing by making sure those units go to people who are actually eligible to receive them.
One of the biggest changes is the elimination of the so-called roommate loophole, a policy that previously allowed mixed-status families to live in public housing together, with subsidies prorated for the legal members of the household. That loophole is now closed.
A 2019 HUD analysis found more than 108,000 people living in public housing households that included at least one undocumented immigrant. Critics of the new policy point out that as many as 55,000 of those individuals are American citizen children who could be displaced as a result.
That is a real concern worth acknowledging. But the core issue remains: American citizens and legal residents have been sitting on waiting lists for public housing for years while units have been occupied by people who were never eligible for them in the first place.
Turner put it plainly. Illegal aliens are riding the coattails of American taxpayers. That ride is over.