Matthew Thomas
Two members of the Vermont nonprofit organization Migrant Justice were taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol just two days after Gov. Phil Scott signed a law broadening access to housing for Vermont’s immigrant community.
The law — a product of Migrant Justice’s advocacy work — contains language that prohibits rejecting a housing application based on citizenship or immigration status and prohibits landlords from requiring Social Security numbers as part of the rental application process. The bill, S.127, was signed June 12. Two days later, June 14 — the day nearly 40,000 Vermonters across the state joined millions of Americans for “No Kings” protests — Jose Ignacio “Nacho” De LaCruz, 29, and his stepdaughter Heidi Perez, 18, were taken into custody in Franklin County by ICE.
De LaCruz and Perez are both members of Migrant Justice, which “was involved every step of the way” on S.127, “from proposing and writing the draft language to providing testimony to speaking directly to elected officials,” said Rachel Elliott, communications and development coordinator for the organization, in an email to The Bridge.
Elliot also said that both De LaCruz and Perez were active in the campaign to pass the legislation, De LaCruz as a member of Migrant Justice’s leadership group and Perez through testimony, rallying, and speaking at press conferences.
“Our celebration of this groundbreaking new law is bittersweet,” Elliott said, referring to the detention of De LaCruz and Perez, who remain in federal custody.
Just a few days after Migrant Justice held a press conference at the Statehouse celebrating passage of the new law, the group gathered again, on Monday, June 16, to protest De LaCruz and Perez’s detention. A federal judge granted a restraining order for both De La Cruz and Perez, which keeps them both in Vermont during their cases, according to Elliott.
The new law that the two were celebrating earlier this month states that landlords can still accept a Social Security number for the purpose of running a background check if one is offered. However, it goes on to say, landlords, “shall” also accept “an original or copy of any unexpired form of government-issued identification,” or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number in lieu of a Social Security number if one is not provided. Moreover, the law says landlords cannot “refuse to accept” an application without a Social Security number.
Originating as bill H.169 in the Vermont House of Representatives, the proposed law was developed by Migrant Justice and supported by groups such as the Housing and Homelessness Alliance of Vermont and the Vermont Human Rights Commission, among many others, according to a March 9 post on Migrant Justice’s website.
Landlords have regularly denied applications for lack of a Social Security number, Elliott said, according to community testimony. “Nearly every immigrant family who has tried to rent housing in the state has an experience of being asked to provide a Social Security number and having their application denied if they could not provide one,” Elliott said.
One of the potential adverse effects of this process, according to Elliott, was forcing immigrant workers into substandard housing provided by employers.
“We were pressured to find work that provided housing and accept dangerous working conditions and human rights abuses because we didn’t have access to other housing,” said De LaCruz in testimony Elliott provided to The Bridge.
The Vermont Landlords Association (VLA), in a March 18 post on its website about the original House bill, H.169, objected to the inclusion of immigration status as a protected class. According to the VLA, requiring landlords to rent to a person regardless of legal status could potentially “create federal issues for housing providers.” The Bridge contacted the VLA for clarification on what federal laws or regulations the association fears housing providers might run afoul of, but had not received a reply as of press time.
The association also objected to the prohibition on collecting Social Security numbers as part of the rental application process. “This would effectively be a prohibition on running credit checks, as a majority of companies require a Social Security number to ensure accurate information,” the post says.
Instead of what it characterizes as a “broader prohibition” on collecting Social Security numbers, the VLA proposed nixing the prohibition on requiring Social Security numbers and replacing it with language stating that a landlord or agent could not deny an application “on the basis that the applicant or member of the applicant’s household has not been issued a Social Security card.” While a form of this provision did make it into the signed legislation, it is in addition to the prohibition on requiring Social Security cards, not as a replacement of the prohibition.
Elliott said there are platforms such as Experian through which landlords can conduct credit checks without a Social Security number and added that this method of conducting credit checks is common across the country, citing California specifically because it has similar immigrant protections.
As to concerns over adding immigration status to the list of protected classes, state Rep. Conor Casey, of Montpelier, a sponsor of the legislation — along with fellow Montpelier representative Kate McCann and many other legislators — said in an email to The Bridge that, “There’s no federal law prohibiting landlords from renting to someone based on immigration status.”
Casey also said landlords in states with similar laws, such as Colorado and Oregon, are able to conduct credit checks using methods that do not require Social Security numbers.
“This provision pushes back against a national climate that has increasingly tried to criminalize and marginalize immigrants,” Casey said. “Vermont is saying that here, we don’t deny people a roof over their heads based on paperwork.”
