CIVIL RIGHTS & IMMIGRATION ECONOMY
Despite Trump’s claim, deportations likely wouldn’t ease housing crisis, most experts say

At best, the link is tenuous. At worst, far fewer homes would get built.

BY: ROBBIE SEQUEIRA - DECEMBER 14, 2024 4:00 AM

This story originally appeared in Stateline.

The mass deportations of immigrants that President-elect Donald Trump has promised aren’t likely to make a dent in the nation’s housing crisis, many experts say, despite what he and his supporters claimed during his campaign.

Experts say the reasons for that are many. Immigrants in the U.S. without documentation are more likely to live in low-income rental housing than they are to live in higher-income areas or to buy homes. They often live in multigenerational groups with many people in a household. And they are a key cog in the construction industry, meaning fewer homes would get built without their labor.

Yet, as the United States’ ongoing housing crisis grew more visible this year, Trump seized on immigration as a chief cause. … “Immigration is driving housing costs through the roof,” he said at a September rally in Arizona.

U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, the incoming vice president, in his October debate against Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, went further, arguing that “illegal aliens competing with Americans for scarce homes is one of the most significant drivers of home prices in the country.”

Neither of those statements is true, according to many housing and immigration experts.

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