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Progressive Caucus Backs Bill To Redirect ICE Money To Affordable Housing
The Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of nearly 100 House Democrats, is formally endorsing legislation that would strip $175 billion from ICE and put it toward affordable housing.
The bill, introduced last month by Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.), would pull tens of billions of dollars in immigration enforcement funding from President Donald Trump's so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and put it toward housing programs that reduce rents, expand homeownership and provide new incentives for affordable housing construction.
Specifically, Gomez's bill would create a monthly Renter Tax Credit for families that pay more than 30% of their income on rent, provide $50,000 or more in down-payment assistance for first-generation homebuyers, convert vacant office buildings into affordable housing through a 20-35% Affordable Housing Conversion Credit, and expand production of affordable housing through a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.
"This bill flips the script," the California Democrat said in a statement last month. "We’re taking back Trump’s anti-immigrant slush fund and investing it in real housing solutions that actually help people while putting a check on the unaccountable police force he built to go after our communities."
The progressive caucus, which has been vowing to rein in ICE, will announce its endorsement of Gomez's bill later Wednesday.
