Rep. Aguilar helped prevent a dangerous rule that would put U.S. citizen children who live in mixed immigration status households at risk of being evicted and becoming homeless

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Rep. Pete Aguilar (CA-33) recently helped pass a bipartisan amendment to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) bill to stop the Trump administration's unlawful and dangerous mixed-status housing rule that would take away housing from U.S. citizen children who live in mixed immigration status households.

Last month, Rep. Pete Aguilar questioned Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Scott Turner in a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing about this unfair and unprecedented housing rule. During the questioning, Secretary Turner admitted that HUD's rulemaking authority does not supersede U.S. law. This line of questioning helped lead to the bipartisan passage of the amendment preventing the rule in the final version of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 THUD bill. The bill will now go to the full U.S. House of Representatives for a vote. You can watch the full clip of Rep. Aguilar's questioning of Secretary Turner here and read an excerpt below:

Rep. Pete Aguilar: I'm extremely concerned about HUD's new proposed mixed-status rule and that it will result in the displacement of families and children from their homes. We know of 61 such American citizen children at risk in my district, California's 33rd….Your rulemaking leaves them out. It takes away funding that is eligible for U.S. citizens…I will submit to you that people on both sides of the aisle feel if people fraudulently fill out their information, they should not be eligible. You're conflating these issues. What I'm talking about is that U.S. citizen children are not being allowed support through your programs if they have a mixed-status family. Let me describe how this works. So, [if there's] a U.S. citizen parent with maybe a lawful permanent resident other parent or an undocumented other parent and two U.S. citizen children, how it has been interpreted and the law of our country has said that you do not penalize those kids. That you provide that support…Do you believe rulemaking supersedes U.S. law?

Housing Secretary Turner: Well, what I believe I mean, we have to uphold the law and enforce the law, yes.

Rep. Pete Aguilar: Ok. Well, U.S. law says if the eligibility for financial assistance of at least one member of a family has been affirmatively established under the program, then it moves forward. Any financial assistance made available to that family by the applicable Secretary shall be prorated based on the number of individuals for whom there is eligibility. Why are you not doing what happened in Trump 1.0? What happened in the Bush administration? What happened in the George H.W. Bush administration? Since 1984, this has been the law of the land. Prorate the money. Help the kids. Help the U.S. citizens. Give them resources and support. I'm not asking you to do anything that hasn't been done in other administrations. What I'm asking you to do is follow the law, which supersedes your rulemaking, and do not hold U.S. citizen children to a different standard. Do not displace 61 kids in my district because you have a separate interpretation and because you think we just don't have enough resources. The Chairman of the full Committee said you're going to get the resources. I would encourage you to revisit this rule.