How Trump uses non-immigration government agencies to aid his deportation campaign

U.S. President Donald Trump has prioritized the deportation campaign on his agenda, and several departments and agencies within his administration, whose work was previously unrelated to immigration, have become involved. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has transferred taxpayer information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); public health services like Medicaid have been urged to disclose the immigration status of beneficiaries; and the Department of Education is investigating universities that grant scholarships to undocumented students. Now, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is joining the fray. A proposed law would require HUD to identify undocumented immigrants living in households receiving rental assistance and revoke those subsidies.

The Trump administration has blamed undocumented immigrants for benefiting from public assistance — such as housing — and harming American citizens. This is despite the fact that undocumented immigrants are prohibited by law from accessing federal public resources. Of the 4.4 million households receiving housing assistance, approximately 20,000 include at least one undocumented member.

The new regulations would force these families “to choose between losing the assistance that helps them pay rent or separating their family,” according to Sonya Acosta, an analyst at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, who estimates that nearly 80,000 people would be affected. Of these, 52,600 are eligible citizens and 24,300 are non-citizens who do not qualify. Some 37,000 children are part of these households, and two out of three are U.S. citizens.

The new HUD regulations would overhaul a decades-old rule that has allowed people who don’t qualify for rental assistance to live with eligible family members. For example, an undocumented grandparent can live in a home where their children or grandchildren are U.S. citizens and eligible for assistance. The subsidy amount is typically based on the number of eligible individuals, not the total number of residents in the home.

Mark Thiele, CEO of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO), criticizes the scope of the measure, which he considers “casts a wide net that will ensnare eligible Americans, shifts focus from housing stability to immigration enforcement and imposes costs that likely exceed any speculative savings,” according to an article published on the organization’s website.

“Three in four eligible families nationwide already go unassisted — not because of ineligible participants, but because of insufficient appropriations. This proposal does not add a single new voucher or public housing unit,” he adds. The legislative proposal is open for public comment until April 21.

Shawna Bowman, director of the Chicago-based nonprofit Friendship Community Place, estimates that the law will affect some 4,000 residents in that city, putting them at risk of losing their homes. In her opinion, the legislation will have a “catastrophic impact on mixed-status families.” By eliminating the prorated assistance model — in place for more than 30 years — HUD is putting families in an unacceptable situation: they must choose between remaining together in poverty or breaking up their families to keep a roof over their heads. Some critics argue that the initiative will even encourage divorce among mixed-status couples as the only way to keep their homes.

HUD’s collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began earlier this year when it urged housing authorities to verify the eligibility of some 200,000 people receiving assistance, including thousands of deceased individuals and undocumented immigrants. This task requires allocating a disproportionate amount of time and resources to immigration matters, as has been the case with other branches of the administration during Trump’s second term.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the days of illegal aliens, ineligibles, and fraudsters gaming the system and riding the coattails of American taxpayers are over,” Scott Turner, HUD secretary, told The Washington Post.

IRS data

HUD’s initiative to locate undocumented immigrants is not the first of its kind. In June of last year, the government compelled the IRS to share the addresses of more than one million taxpayers with ICE. In November, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction, ruling that the data-sharing policy was likely unlawful. The government is appealing the decision.

It was recently revealed that much of the information exchanged was erroneous, so a Senate committee has asked the government to confirm whether any of the 47,289 affected taxpayers have been questioned, arrested, detained, or deported. The committee also demanded to know what plan exists to rectify any detentions or deportations carried out in error, and whether the affected taxpayers have been notified that their information was improperly disclosed.

The transfer of confidential information, such as immigration status, from Medicaid — the public health insurance program for low-income individuals — to ICE is also being challenged in court. The disclosure of this status is generating fear among patients, who are avoiding doctors or even emergency rooms when they need them for fear of being detained.

“Sharing Medicaid beneficiary data with ICE will likely make immigrant families — including citizen children within those families — more reluctant to access coverage and health care, as well as other programs and services. This policy exacerbates the already heightened fears immigrant families have due to the overall increase in immigration enforcement activities,” warned KFF, a leading health policy organization in the United States, upon learning of the data-sharing agreement in January. The 2025 KFF/The New York Times Immigrant Survey had already revealed that approximately half (51%) of immigrant adults were “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” that health officials or healthcare providers might share their information with ICE.

Texas, a state governed by Republican Greg Abbott, urged hospitals in November 2024 to ask about the immigration status of people arriving at emergency rooms. The impact was tremendous: in a matter of months, the number of undocumented immigrants visiting emergency rooms fell by 32%, according to data from The Texas Tribune, reaching 20,345 visits in August 2025.

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