Nativist HUD Plan Will Harm Children

[Content Note: Nativism; child abuse.]

Malice is the agenda. And, increasingly, child abuse is a central feature of that malice.

The latest, care of Tracy Jan at the Washington Post: HUD Says 55,000 Children Could Be Displaced Under Trump Plan to Evict Undocumented Immigrants.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development acknowledged that a Trump administration plan to purge undocumented immigrants from public housing could displace more than 55,000 children, all of whom are legal U.S. residents or citizens.

The proposed rule, published Friday in the Federal Register, would tighten regulations against undocumented immigrants accessing federally subsidized housing to "make certain our scarce public resources help those who are legally entitled to it," HUD Secretary Ben Carson said last month.

But the agency's analysis of the rule's regulatory impact concluded that half of current residents living in households potentially facing eviction and homelessness are children who are legally qualified for aid.

Currently, the rules stipulate that as long as there is one member of a household of eligible to receive housing subsidies, the entire residence qualifies for the benefit. Any child born in the United States is a citizen, and thus eligible for the HUD subsidy.

But:

The new rule, pushed by White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, would require every household member be of "eligible immigration status."

Undocumented immigrants may no longer sign the leases of subsidized housing, even if their children are entitled to prorated benefits.

Approximately 25,000 households, representing about 108,000 people, now living in subsidized housing have at least one ineligible member, according to the HUD analysis.

Among these mixed-status households, 70 percent, or 76,000 people, are legally eligible for benefits — of whom 55,000 are children, HUD says. The vast majority live in California, Texas, and New York.

This change denies children rights to which they don't have access unless their parents are extended the right on their behalf, as a minor cannot legally sign a lease. And given that a housing subsidy usually means the difference between having a place to live and homelessness, denying a child this right is no small thing. It's straight-up child abuse.

It also draws a line between which citizens matter and which citizens don't. A child born in the U.S. to an undocumented immigrant is just as much a citizen as a child born in the U.S. to someone with legal residency. They are entitled to the same rights.

This rule says they aren't, which literally turns these children into second-class citizens.

Donald Trump and Mike Pence and Stephen Miller and the rest of this filthy administration would rather see a child who is citizen of this nation be homeless than see an undocumented person have a home subsidized by taxpayers.

I can't even begin to comprehend a mind so full of hate, so goddamned cruel.