The Trump administration on Monday announced that it would be ending taxpayer-funded housing for illegal immigrants.

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revealed a joint partnership to curtail what they describe as an “exploitation” of the country’s housing programs.

As Rachel Acenas reports for The Epoch Times, Turner and Noem together signed the “American Housing Programs for American Citizens” memorandum of understanding (MOU).

“We’re here signing a partnership to ensure that the wasteful misappropriations that have been going to assist the illegal aliens in our country will no longer go to assist them but instead to assist the American people,” Turner said in a video statement on X.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner walks towards the West Wing following a TV interview at the White House on Feb. 19, 2025. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo

American citizens have taken a back seat to illegal immigrants for too long, according to Turner, who said that American tax dollars should be used to benefit only U.S. citizens, especially when it comes to an issue as pressing as the nation’s housing crisis.

As part of the new memorandum, HUD will provide a full-time staff member to assist in operations at the Incident Command Center (ICC) to facilitate data-sharing and ensure taxpayer-funded housing programs are not used to benefit or harbor illegal immigrants.

Noem accused the Biden administration of failing to prioritize Americans.

“This memorandum is going to be a partnership that we will form to make sure that these housing programs are going to only people who deserve it, people who are in this country who need assistance, who want a better life for their family,” Noem said in the video.

The HUD and DHS partnership comes after Trump signed an executive order in February to direct federal agencies and departments to identify all federally-funded programs that provide financial benefits to illegal immigrants and to take corrective action.

The order seeks to “ensure taxpayer resources are not used to incentivize or support illegal immigration,” according to a fact sheet on the order.

HUD cited data from the Center for Immigration Studies that showed about 59 percent of illegal immigrant households use one or more welfare programs, creating roughly $42 billion in costs. The increase has a direct impact on housing, according to the agency. By increasing demand for housing, immigration drives up costs in areas where immigrants settle, according to the data.

The department pointed to various other issues surrounding taxpayer-funded housing programs for illegal immigrants.

“Across the country there are about 9 million residents of public and subsidized housing without proper information sharing to determine eligibility status,” the department said.