On Feb. 19, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner 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.”

“HUD’s proposed rule will guarantee that all residents in HUD-funded housing are eligible tenants. We have zero tolerance for pushing aside hardworking U.S. citizens while enabling others to exploit decades-old loopholes,” Turner said.

HUD’s proposed rule will close loopholes and prohibit HUD funding from benefitting illegal immigrants and ineligible noncitizens who reside in taxpayer-funded housing, according to the agency.

Specifically, the proposed rule would “bring HUD’s Section 214 [of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1980] implementing regulations into greater alignment with the wording and purpose of Section 214 by revising HUD’s regulations to require the verification of U.S. citizenship or the eligible immigration status of all applicants and recipients of assistance under a covered program regardless of age, and to make prorated assistance a temporary condition pending verification of eligible status of all family members, where permitted by statute,” the proposed rule states.

The changes to the rule would also better align with the Feb. 19, 2025, presidential executive order titled “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders,” which directs the head of each department or agency to “enhance eligibility verification systems, to the maximum extent possible, to ensure that taxpayer-funded benefits exclude any ineligible [immigrants].”

HUD housing assistance was designed for U.S. citizens and certain eligible noncitizens, but HUD resources serve only a quarter of eligible households. A recent HUD and Department of Homeland Security audit of all assisted households found that nearly 200,000 tenants had incomplete or unknown eligibility verification. HUD estimated approximately 24,000 immigrants, ineligibles and fraudsters in 20,000 “mixed-status households” benefit from HUD assistance.

This proposed rule comes on the coat tails of HUD’s requirement that all public housing authorities verify tenant immigration eligibility, report deceased tenants and take corrective action.