Port Isabel, Texas – Until recently, young children ran in and out of their public housing in this Gulf Coast city, playing in sun-drenched lawns while mothers looked over their shoulders for the school bus to drop off their older children. Suddenly, sofas, dressers and refrigerators began appearing on the sidewalk in front of movers or garbage collectors.
Within weeks, the neighborhood was a ghost town and the stadium was empty.
What sparked the exodus was a botched letter from the Housing Authority of Port Isabel, a South Texas community of 5,000 people, many of them immigrants who work in hotels and restaurants on the beaches of nearby South Padre Island. Port Isabel Housing Authority A Trump administration proposal It was about to come into effect which would end housing assistance for families with at least one member in the country illegally. The events that followed offered a glimpse of what could happen in communities across the United States if the proposed rule were actually finalized.
“The impact is not limited to illegal immigrants, but to immigrants who are here legally as well as people who are citizens of their families,” said Mary Clare Tran Leong, senior staff attorney at the National Housing Law Project.
For decades, families with at least one legal or qualified resident have been allowed to live in public housing on the condition that those who are here illegally or who do not qualify because of their immigration status pay a full, unsubsidized share of the rent. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Management wants to reverse that.
Advocates estimate that up to 80,000 people will be evicted from their homes across the country under the measure, which is part of President Donald Trump’s immigration campaign. They include US citizens, many of them children Born in this country But their parents were not.
On February 3, the Port Isabel Housing Authority sent a letter to residents saying the Trump administration wants everyone in the household to prove their legal status within 30 days or face eviction. Three weeks later, the agency sent a “clarification” memorandum stating that no such evidence was needed.
It’s already too late.
Half the population living in public housing in Port Isabel left within a month of receiving the first letter. The occupancy rate fell from 91% in January to 43% in May, well below the national average of 94%.
HUD’s proposed rule has not yet taken effect.
The Housing Authority offered no explanation for the initial misunderstanding and officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press.
Concerns about evacuation and rumors that U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement may become involved Which sparked a state of panic among some residents.
“My kids and I talked and wondered what we were going to do, but then said it was best to leave and avoid any retaliation,” a single mother from Mexico raising two American teenagers told The Associated Press. She, like other former residents, spoke on condition of anonymity due to fears of deportation.
She turned to legal service organizations that told her and others they could stay in public housing. But she and her children decided it was too risky, so they left their home of nearly a decade, finding an apartment in the same school district that cost about $500 more a month.
The move also added about 10 minutes to the island, where the mother and daughter work. The 18-year-old comes home from school at 4:30pm and eats a quick dinner before her mother drives her to a job that starts at 5pm. The daughter is valedictorian of her senior class and plans to go to college in the fall with the help of scholarship offers, but is worried about how her family will make ends meet. Her brother was laid off from work, and their mother underwent cancer treatment last year, sapping her energy and straining their finances.
Other families face greater challenges.
The mother of three said she moved her family into a one-bedroom trailer home parked illegally between two other homes. Her eldest son sleeps in the living room.
Another family sold three beds and other furniture so they could live in a tiny house on wheels, only to discover that the landlord wouldn’t let them use the mailing address, affecting her children’s school and health insurance.
The mother of two said: “Since we received the letter, everything has changed from one day to the next. It is not the same anymore. Before the letter, the children were happy and playing outside.”
The Trump administration proposed in February that any household with one ineligible resident would disqualify an entire household, estimating that 24,000 recipients were ineligible in 20,000 households.
“We have zero tolerance for setting aside hardworking American citizens while enabling others to exploit decades-long loopholes,” said Scott Turner, HUD Secretary at the time.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which advocates for low-income families, estimates that 79,600 people may have to leave their homes, with a disproportionate impact on children and Latinos.
The rule sparked more than 16,000 public comments, many of which were critical, including from city leaders across the United States.
For example, the New York City Council told HUD that an estimated 12% of households in the city have at least one member who lacks legal status. There are about 240,000 children in these homes.
“This proposed rule will unambiguously lead to increased displacement, homelessness, poverty, and decreased educational and health outcomes,” the council wrote.
HUD is expected to publish a final version of the rule after considering public comments.
We are almost certain to encounter it Legal challenges.
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Associated Press writers Michael Casey in Boston and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this story.