Fair Housing Rights of Immigrants

Overview

Immigrants in the United States can face significant barriers to safe, stable housing, including discriminatory practices related to immigration status, citizenship, language, and national origin. While immigration status itself is not a protected class under the federal Fair Housing Act, federal, state, and local laws provide important protections against discrimination and other practices that unlawfully restrict access to housing.

This memorandum examines the legal protections available to immigrants seeking and living in housing, with a focus on how immigration-related policies and practices may violate the Fair Housing Act and other civil rights laws. It also highlights key case law, state and local protections, and emerging issues related to language access and immigration-status verification.

Key Highlights

The Fair Housing Act protects immigrants.
The FHA applies to all people in the United States, regardless of immigration status. Immigration-related practices may violate the FHA when they result in discrimination based on national origin.

Immigration-related screening can create fair housing risks.
Requirements involving immigration or citizenship documentation, language, or other proxies can raise fair housing concerns when they are not legally required, are applied inconsistently, or disproportionately affect protected groups.

Language access is a fair housing issue.
While limited English proficiency is not itself a protected class, selective language requirements or treatment based on language or accent may constitute national origin discrimination under the FHA and other civil rights laws.

Protections extend beyond federal law.
Section 1981, along with state and local laws in jurisdictions across the country, provides additional avenues for challenging discrimination based on immigration or citizenship status. Housing providers and grantees must also ensure that immigration-status verification practices are legally required, consistently applied, and no broader than necessary.