Goldman, Velázquez Introduce Legislation to Stop Data Sharing Between Department of Housing and Urban Development and DHS, ICE

Washington, D.C. - Today. U.S. Representatives Dan Goldman (NY-10) and Nydia Velázquez (NY-07) introduced the HUD Data Privacy Act, new legislation to prevent the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from exchanging data collected from individuals receiving federal housing assistance with other agencies or third-party entities. The bill follows reports that HUD is working with the Department of Homeland Security to identify immigrants without legal status living in publicly subsidized housing. 

The Trump administration has engaged in unprecedented efforts to share personal data across agencies to help further the administration’s policy objectives, including its aggressive pursuit of immigration enforcement activities. This legislation would end this practice by placing commonsense restrictions on the data HUD collects from beneficiaries, explicitly dictating the situations in which data can be exchanged by HUD. 

“DHS is using every tool at its disposal to terrorize immigrant families and expand its immigration dragnet,” said Rep. Goldman. “This legislation eliminates one of those tools. By preventing data sharing between HUD and other agencies, the HUD Data Privacy Act stops DHS from using private information to fulfill its inhumane deportation quotas and ensures that eligible individuals can apply for and receive benefits without fear.” 

 “HUD's job is to keep families safely housed, not to feed sensitive information to ICE. The Trump administration has attempted to turn HUD into an arm of DHS, scaring eligible families out of programs they depend on and leaving children and U.S. citizens caught in the middle. Housing should never be used as a weapon, and our bill puts an end to that practice,” said Rep. Velázquez.

Last year, HUD and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish an “interagency partnership to facilitate data sharing” between the two agencies. This agreement has enabled HUD to share information collected from beneficiaries directly with DHS, which can then use the data to further the agency’s inhumane deportation quotas. These MOUs have had a chilling effect on the effectiveness of HUD’s programs, as eligible individuals decline to apply for benefits out of fear that any information shared with the agency will be weaponized by the Trump administration. 

Specifically, the HUD Data Privacy Act would: 

• Prohibit HUD from sharing any information collected from an individual receiving housing assistance that is not required to determine that individual’s benefit eligibility or benefit determination. 
• Prohibit any agency or third-party entity in receipt of data from HUD from using that data for any other purposes outside of determining an individual’s benefit eligibility or benefit determination. 
• Explicitly restrict data-sharing for the purposes of immigration enforcement activities. 
• Provide limited exceptions to allow for the sharing of deidentified information between agencies for statistical purposes, or information required to prevent an imminent threat to life. 

The legislation is cosponsored by Reps. Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-AL), Yvette Clarke (NY-11) Salud Carbajal (CA-24), Andre Carson (IN-07), Pablo Hernández (PR-AL), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), and John Larson (CT-01).

The full text of the legislation is available here. 

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