PORT ISABEL, TEXAS — The Port Isabel Housing Authority sent a letter on February 3, 2026, telling residents that the Trump administration wanted every household member to prove legal status within 30 days or face eviction. Half of the residents in the South Texas town's public housing left within a month, and the occupancy rate fell from 91% in January 2026 to 43% in May 2026, compared with a national average of 94%.

Three weeks after the initial letter, the housing authority sent a follow-up note stating that no proof of legal status was required. By then, residents had already begun placing couches, dressers, and refrigerators curbside for movers or garbage collectors. Within weeks, few residents remained in the neighborhood and the playground was empty.

Port Isabel is a Gulf Coast town of about 5,000 people, many of them immigrants who work at hotels and restaurants on nearby South Padre Island.

A single mother from Mexico raising two U.S. citizen teenagers left a home of nearly a decade and found an apartment in the same school district that costs about $500 more per month, adding roughly 10 minutes to her commute to South Padre Island, where she and her daughter work. "My kids and I spoke and wondered what we were going to do, but then we said it's better to leave and avoid any retaliation," she said.

For decades, families with at least one legal or eligible resident have been allowed to live in public housing provided ineligible household members pay a full, unsubsidized share of rent. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has proposed a rule reversing that policy, and as of May 2026 it had not taken effect. The Trump administration proposed in February 2026 that any household with one ineligible resident would disqualify the entire family, estimating 24,000 ineligible recipients across 20,000 households.

"We have zero tolerance for pushing aside hardworking U.S. citizens while enabling others to exploit decades-old loopholes," HUD Secretary Scott Turner said.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that 79,600 people could be forced to leave their homes under the proposed rule, with a disproportionate impact on children and Latinos. The proposal received more than 16,000 public comments. The New York City Council informed HUD that an estimated 12% of city households have at least one member lacking legal status and that approximately 240,000 children live in those households. "This proposed rule will unequivocally lead to increased displacement, homelessness, poverty, and decreased educational and health outcomes," the council wrote. HUD is expected to publish a final version of the rule after considering public comments, and the rule is likely to face legal challenges.