Is Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson a) clueless, b) a liar, or c) all of the above? Because an official from his own agency has now contracted his testimony to Congress, and finally admitted that, yes, HUD is indeed denying government-insured home loans to undocumented immigrant youth protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“Because DACA does not confer lawful status,” claimed HUD’s Len Wolfson, “DACA recipients remain ineligible for FHA loans.” About that “remain” word choice: while “the FHA has never had an explicit policy about DACA recipients,” BuzzFeed reports, their rules state “only that an Employment Authorization Document—which DACA recipients have—is necessary ‘to substantiate work status” for noncitizens and qualify for the housing loans.”
But DACA recipients like Edith Aguirre Vazquez, here since the age of three, said they were being denied loans, following “unofficial instructions from Trump administration officials to shut them out.” Oreo aficionado Carson denied this when he was in front of Congress in April, saying “I asked around after I read that story. No one was aware of any changes that had been made to the policy whatsoever. I’m sure we have plenty of DACA recipients who have FHA-backed loans.” BuzzFeed reports that “he added that it would ‘surprise’ him if DACA recipients were being turned down.”
Well, surprise. In fact the Trump administration has waged an all-out war on Dreamers by rescinding DACA. Now that numerous courts have forced the reinstatement of the program, the administration has gone to the Supreme Court to ask it to speed up the case around it in order to fast-track the deportation of these young Americans-in-waiting. You’d think Carson has bigger things to worry about, like, oh, the fact that he violated the law. Nah, he’s too busy adding to the burden so many DACA recipients are carrying right now.