Speech #1140032926

With this impending financial crisis as a backdrop. I ask the House of Representatives to have the courage. to have the backbone. to be financially responsible. The House can do that in part by adopting my amendment that eliminates Federal Government housing subsidies for illegal aliens. How big is this problem? Census Bureau data analyzed by the Center for Immigration Studies in 2012 reflects that at least 130.000 households headed by selfidentifying illegal aliens live in public or subsidized housing. That is potentially hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars being illegally taken by illegal aliens with the tacit or open consent or even the encouragement of the United States Government. Think about that for a moment. While American families struggle to make ends meet. while America faces a debilitating and destructive insolvency and bankruptcy. while American families and lawful immigrants are being forced to wait in line for public housing. this administration ignores the law to spend potentially hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars subsidizing illegal aliens. thereby encouraging their illegal conduct. Madam Chair. my amendment is simple. It prohibits funding to subsidized housing in violation of section 214(d) of the Housing and Community Development Act that. for clarity. bars HUD from providing taxpayer assistance for the benefit of an applicant "before immigration documentation is presented and verified" by DHS automated Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system or a subsequent successful appeal. Unfortunately. this administration ignores the law and permits illegal aliens to move into public housing before the legality of their status is finally determined. Also. unfortunately. the administrative and legal process being what it is. it takes as much as 2 years to evict illegal alien tenants after their illegal alien status is discovered. Madam Chair. it is unacceptable that. in a time of outofcontrol United States debt and deficit. HUD violates the law to give limited public housing benefits to illegal aliens. rather than needy American citizens and lawful immigrants. Madam Chair. I urge the adoption of my amendment that. first. denies public housing subsidies to illegal aliens. and. second. underscores the sense of Congress that the law must be obeyed and that it is wrong to use public housing subsidies to reward illegal aliens for their illegal conduct. I reserve the balance of my time.