Support H.R. 2763, the “Keeping Families Together Act of 2019,” and H.R. 3154, the “Homeownership for Dreamers Act”

View a PDF of this letter here.

June 11, 2019

Dear Member of the Committee on Financial Services:

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of more than 200 national advocacy organizations, I write to express our support for H.R. 2763, the “Keeping Families Together Act of 2019,” and H.R. 3154, the “Homeownership for Dreamers Act.” While The Leadership Conference also supports several other bills being marked up today, our coalition is especially grateful for these two bills because they help respond to an administration that has been trying on every front possible to attack immigrants and their families in furtherance of its radical anti-immigrant agenda.

H.R. 2763 would bar the Department of Housing and Urban Development from implementing its proposed rule to bar mixed-status families from receiving various forms of federal housing assistance. HUD’s inhumane and unnecessary rule should be scrapped. It would likely lead to the displacement of tens of thousands of legal residents and citizens, including 55,000 children who are legally present in the country. While HUD claims its rule is meant to ensure that undocumented immigrants to do not benefit from housing subsidies, current laws and regulations already prevent this from happening. Furthermore, HUD itself admits that the rule would not benefit other families on housing waiting lists.[1] This rule would cruelly force families to choose between staying together and putting a roof over their heads, and we urge Congress to prevent its implementation.

H.R. 3154 would clarify that recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status are eligible for mortgages backed by FHA, USDA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. The Leadership Conference strongly supports H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act, to provide permanent legal status and a path to citizenship for Dreamers as well as TPS/DED recipients. We applaud the House for recently passing it, and we believe it must be enacted. That said, it is unclear whether the Senate leadership will allow a vote on H.R. 6 in this Congress, and whether President Trump would sign it in the absence of other far more controversial immigration law changes. But in the meantime, Dreamers should be given as much stability in their lives as possible, including in this case the chance to become homeowners.

Shelter is a basic human right and homeownership is the American Dream. It is deeply troubling that the administration’s anti-immigrant agenda has gone so far as to attack immigrants right where they live. We thank the committee for its leadership in doing what it can within its jurisdiction to mount an appropriate response.

Thank you for your consideration. If you have any questions, please contact Rob Randhava, Senior Counsel, at (202) 466-3311.

Sincerely,

Vanita Gupta

President & CEO

[1] https://nlihc.org/resource/point-view-hud-mixed-status-immigration-rule-based-lie-nlihc-president-and-ceo-diane