Representative Vargas Introduces “Home Together Act” to Block HUD from Sharing Personal Data for Immigrant Enforcement

By Kayla Blackwell, NLIHC Housing Policy Analyst and Sarita Kelkar, NLIHC Policy Intern 

On September 11, Representative Juan Vargas (D-CA) introduced the “Home Together Act” to prevent HUD from sharing personal data with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for immigration enforcement and deportation purposes. The legislation was announced together with Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove's “Limiting ICE National Encroachment (LINE) Act,” which would prohibit two other agencies, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) from sharing similar data with DHS. Designed to protect data and families, the two bills come in response to the Trump Administration’s attempts to access and direct sensitive, personal housing and health information to immigration enforcement officials.  

The Trump Administration’s escalation of enforcement and deportation efforts, signaled by President Trump’s call for ICE officials to “achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History,” is projected to deport more than 400,000 people solely within the first year of this term. With White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller setting a target of 3,000+ arrests a day at the start of summer, cities like Los Angeles have experienced immigration arrest rates quadrupling between April and June, creating a climate of tension exacerbated by the deployment of federal troops. Information-sharing is only one of many methods designated to facilitate this target, violating the safety of both immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.   

In July, CMS entered an agreement with DHS, complying with the request to provide the personal data (including home addresses and ethnicities) of Medicaid enrollees to ICE officials. This sharing of location and identity information for immigration enforcement purposes effectively bars individuals from seeking out essential necessities out of fear when privacy is no longer guaranteed. Amidst a backdrop where immigrant families are living in fear, services are failing to provide confidentiality—threatening the security of families and placing a larger target on immigrant communities.  

These agreements began prior to the summer. In April, House Democrats penned a letter to HUD Secretary Scott Turner opposing HUD’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with DHS, a similar data-sharing agreement (see Memo, 4/28). The introduction of the “Home Together Act” and “LINE Act” takes a stand against federal agencies complicit in sharing sensitive information with DHS and ICE and works to ensure access to key services like housing and healthcare doesn’t come at the cost of government surveillance on families.  

Read about the two pieces of legislation here.