The housing handouts to illegal immigrants living in the United States are next on the chopping block, as Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner confirmed a massive nationwide crackdown.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has launched a lofty undertaking to verify who is living in public housing and purge illegal immigrants from HUD assistance programs.
Turner isn’t holding back, sharing updates on social media and new outlets to spread the word that “We are correcting course and ensuring no HUD funds go to ILLEGALS.”
Not only did Biden not vet 100,000 Afghans before they entered our country, they actively directed taxpayer-funded resources to them.
We are correcting course and ensuring no HUD funds go to ILLEGALS. pic.twitter.com/IPOfIeOOAh— Scott Turner (@SecretaryTurner) December 2, 2025
Turner briefed President Donald Trump and other Cabinet members on Tuesday regarding a new crime hotline and other efforts to curb illegal activity.
In a cabinet meeting clip shared to Turner’s Facebook page, he added: “Since President Trump has taken office, HUD has been working to make public housing safe by stopping crime and kicking out illegals. We will ensure public housing is a safe haven for vulnerable American families — not those who have entered our country illegally.”
On Monday, Turner pointed out that former President Joe Biden weaponized HUD as part of Operation Allies Welcome, letting countless number of refugees into the country unvetted.
Turner shared images of HUD contracts related to Operation Allies Welcome that were terminated days into the Trump administration on both his X account and Facebook.
HUD TERMINATED Operation Allies Welcome days into the Trump administration.
The days of unchecked American taxpayer dollars to the flood of illegals are over. https://t.co/RE3Jrt4kYM pic.twitter.com/9P3NaWOEX7
— Scott Turner (@SecretaryTurner) December 1, 2025
“The days of unchecked American taxpayer dollars to the flood of illegals are over,” Turner wrote.
The resettlement of Afghan refugees through Operation Allies Welcome has drawn attention in the wake of the pre-Thanksgiving shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C.
The suspected shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, is an Afghan national who worked with the CIA and came to the United States in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome.
Following news of the shooting, Turner took to social media several times to target Biden’s failed policies and liberal outrage.
“Biden let illegals into our country and provided them benefits paid for by your American taxpayer dollars — then turned a blind eye to the consequences, which we are now uncovering in illegal safe havens like Minnesota and Washington,” he posted on X on Friday.
“Not only did Biden not vet 100,000 Afghans before they entered our country, they actively directed taxpayer-funded resources to them,” Turner added in a post on Monday.
A Newsweek report from Nov. 27, which Turner shared, found fault with HUD’s request to change the interpretation of immigration verification requirements.
Newsweek led with claims from immigrant rights’ advocates that the rules “effectively deny” immigrants lawfully present in the country access to housing programs.
The HUD general counsel filed a notice in the Federal Register on Nov. 26 to update the interpretation of immigration verification requirements for housing and disaster relief grant programs under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996—also known as PRWORA.
Under the new interpretation, “aliens who are not ‘qualified aliens’ are not eligible for any ‘federal public benefit’ as defined by the law.” Qualified aliens include lawful permanent residents, those with asylum, and refugees, among others.
The change would generally exclude nonqualified aliens such as holders of Temporary Protected Status, recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and nonimmigrants from accessing federal public housing benefits.
“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,” the Protecting Immigrant Families Coalition said in a statement shared with Newsweek. “With immigrant families accounting for 28 percent of the U.S. population, the eligibility change threatens every community in the country.”
Turner’s response: “HUD will not allow a single American taxpayer dollar or resource to be diverted from serving the American people.”
According to recent reports from the Center for Immigration Studies, about 59 percent of illegal alien households use one or more welfare programs, including public housing.
During Biden’s border crisis, millions of federal and state dollars flowed to nonprofits for emergency shelter services and hotel rooms to house illegal migrants.
In March, an opinion-piece by Howard Husock in the New York Post explained other ways illegals were living in public housing. Under rules set by the Biden administration, only one resident in a household needed legal status for a family to qualify for low-rent housing.
Biden authorized aid to “mixed families” composed of both legal and illegal immigrants, in order to avoid “division of the family.”
In addition, housing authorities are not required to report the number of non-citizens among the 9 million residents of public and subsidized housing.
Another kicker: Housing authorities leave it up to illegal immigrants to truthfully report how many people are living in a unit and their legal earnings, even if that means their rent will go up, which is “neither logical — nor likely,” Husock said.
Meanwhile, across the country, U.S. citizens encounter long waiting lists for public housing apartments or housing vouchers that pay for rent in privately owned apartments.
Prior to the holiday, Turner also attended a press conference in Memphis, Tenn., to announce a hotline for people to report crime tips and criminal activity at HUD-funded properties.
The goal is to create a safe environment for people living in public housing, and residents, visitors and others can directly report criminals, gang members, illegal aliens, sex offenders, human traffickers and other suspicious activity.
Reports of crime at HUD properties in Memphis and Washington D.C. will be prioritized, according to a news release, as HUD works with the Memphis Safe Task Force and the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force.
The hotline will help with cross-agency coordination between HUD, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other partner agencies, as directed by President Trump’s Executive Orders.
“We want to take good care of the most vulnerable people in our country, and that means making sure that residents in HUD-funded housing can live their lives in peace and security, free from the horrors of violent crime,” Turner said in a clip aired by Fox Business.
“Illegal aliens have no place in public housing,” he continued. “It’s outrageous that people who should not be here come across our borders and now usurp spots in housing units that should support American people.”
In an interview with Maria Bartiromo of “Mornings with Maria” on Fox Business, Turner said that HUD has taken away FHA-backed mortgages from illegal aliens.
The department put new measures in place to ensure HUD-backed loans only go to American citizens through revised FHA residency requirements.
HUD also mandated that every public housing authority “give us a comprehensive account of who is living in every unit in taxpayer-funded HUD housing,” Turner said.
By law, every PHA is required to share eligibility information, including citizenship status, with HUD. In August, HUD threatened to strip public housing authorities of funding for shielding illegal immigrants, the Washington Examiner reported.
Earlier this year, HUD’s Turner and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem signed the “American Housing Programs for American Citizens” memorandum of understanding.
They also established an interagency partnership to facilitate data sharing and ensure taxpayer-funded housing programs are not used to harbor or benefit illegal aliens.
During the Cabinet meeting, Turner said, “We’re working with DHS and Kristi making sure that everyone that lives inside of public housing is accounted for and that they are American people.”
