August 27, 2026 -San Francisco – The National Housing Law Project (NHLP) is suing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), alleging that the government agencies are unlawfully withholding public documents that could shed light on the sharing of sensitive data between the agencies about federal housing benefit recipients and their families, related to the use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system to investigate their eligibility for benefits. NHLP is represented by Democracy Forward in this matter.

In a complaint filed on Wednessday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, NHLP, a national, nonprofit organization that for decades has been dedicated to advancing housing justice for poor and working people, is asking the court to force HUD, DHS and USCIS to comply with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The agencies have received a series of FOIA requests from NHLP, requesting access to memoranda and communications between public officials about the agencies’ data sharing agreements related to the use of SAVE. The agencies have not produced any documents as required by law, necessitating the request for judicial intervention. 

“Government transparency is central to democracy,” said National Housing Law Project Chief Executive Officer 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. We’ll keep fighting until we get the information.” 

In January 2026, HUD began implementing a series of new policies aimed at targeting immigrant families that lawfully receive public benefits, including investigating the eligibility of current housing benefit recipients using the SAVE system and requiring public housing authorities and owners to re-verify the eligibility of flagged individuals or face sanction and loss of funding. Around the same time, HUD issued a proposal requiring the expanded use of USCIS’ SAVE system to confirm eligibility of new benefit applicants, replacing longstanding rules that allowed for careful verification of benefits eligibility with a flawed and inaccurate DHS system, risking denial or termination of housing assistance for eligible individuals and placing thousands of families at risk of losing assistance and potentially facing eviction or family separation. The version of the SAVE system that HUD used for its investigation has since been ruled unlawful by a federal court in League of Women Voters v. DHS (D.D.C., Case No. 25-cv-3501).

“It is important that our clients receive access to this information so the public can fully understand what the Trump-Vance administration is doing in their name,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “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.”

The case is NHLP v. HUD et al, and Democracy Forward’s legal team working on the case includes Daniel Martinez, Robin Thurston, Ron Fein, and Daniel McGrath. 

Read the complaint here. 

Source: Democracy Forward