A nonprofit housing-justice organization filed a lawsuit to force federal agencies to disclose how they are using an immigration-related database to track benefits given poor and working Americans.
Democracy Forward announced the litigation filed Aug. 26 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. It seeks to require the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services to comply with multiple Freedom of Information requests made by the National Housing Law Project.
Those requests came in response to HUD’s January 2026 implementation of policies verifying immigrant status in connection with tenant eligibility requirements. Property owners and housing authorities were given 30 days to take corrective action against residents deemed ineligible for HUD services.
At roughly the same time, HUD proposed a rule to expand the use of USCIS’ Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, a database also known as SAVE. If implemented, the policy could result in more terminations of housing assistance and possibly cause thousands of families to lose assistance, according to National Housing Law Project v. HUD, DHS and USCIS.
“If implemented, the policy could result in more terminations of housing assistance and possibly cause thousands of families to lose assistance.”
SAVE is the same database the Trump administration wants to use to track and vet American voters and with the goal of purging voter rolls nationwide.
The housing group submitted FOIA requests for all related memoranda of agreement and understanding shared between the government agencies. It also requested and was denied expedited processing of the request.
The organization again requested expedited processing, explaining “there was an urgency to inform the public because HUD had already begun implementing interagency data sharing; the scope of such agreements might affect tenants and applicants for housing benefits across the country; and if the public learned about the terms only after the decisions had been finalized, the information would be less useful for public oversight and accountability.”
But the request was denied in June and NHLP still has not received the records it seeks, prompting the lawsuit accusing the agencies are unlawfully withholding information the nonprofit and public have a right to see.
“Government transparency is central to democracy,” said NHLP CEO Shamus Roller. “It should not take litigation to force the Trump administration to follow the law and provide basic recordkeeping. Trump’s HUD, DHS and USCIS, like any other presidential administration, must provide the requested information in the timeframe required by law.”
Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman said the lawsuit is about helping Americans see what the Trump administration is doing behind the scenes. “We have seen this administration work to weaponize federal funding for nefarious political purposes and people deserve to know the depths to which HUD is working with DHS and USCIS to force people into homelessness and separate families.”