DUKE: JD Vance Was Right — Illegal Immigration Made Your Rent Unaffordable



Amber Duke Senior Editor
December 11, 2025 10:16 AM ET

It’s the most basic law of economics. Yet when Republicans apply the common-sense principle of “supply and demand” to the housing market, Democrats and their friends in the media performatively scratch their heads.

When Vice President JD Vance said during the 2024 campaign that the Trump administration was going to bring housing prices down through mass deportation, he was treated like an imbecile.

“​​Look, in Springfield, Ohio, and in communities all across this country, you’ve got schools that are overwhelmed, you’ve got hospitals that are overwhelmed, you have got housing that is totally unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes,” Vance said in his October 2024 debate against Governor Tim Walz.

There were endless headlines accusing him of being “misleading” or just straight-up lying about the impact of unfettered immigration on housing. The “fact-checkers” had a field day.

Of course, lowering demand for housing will decrease housing costs. Again, a law of economics. And a new HUD report confirms that Vance was right all along.

The report found that the foreign-born population accounted for a 100% increase in rental demand in New York and Florida and a more than 60% increase nationwide. An estimated 30% of the foreign-born population is illegal immigrants.

This effect is only compounded by the fact that illegal immigrants were offered free shelter and subprime mortgages in many blue states and cities, crowding out needy American citizens. According to HUD Secretary Scott Turner on Fox Business, the Biden administration even had a policy that made it easier for Afghan refugees to obtain FHA loans over Americans. Under that program, Turner claimed, Afghan refugees often weren’t subject to credit checks and were not required to adhere to occupancy limits.

On the supply side of the issue, Vance, in a 2024 New York Times sit-down, combatted the argument that we need illegal immigrants to build all of our homes.

“So how do you propose to build all the housing necessary that we need in this country by removing all the people who are working in construction?” Lulu Garcia-Navarro asked.

“Well, I think it’s a fair question because we know that back in the 1960s, when we had very low levels of illegal immigration, Americans didn’t build houses. But of course they did. And I’m being sarcastic in service of a point,” Vance retorted.

“This is one of the really deranged things that I think illegal immigration does to our society is it gets us in a mindset of saying we can only build houses with illegal immigrants, when we have seven million — just men, not even women, just men — who have completely dropped out of the labor force. People say, well, Americans won’t do those jobs. Americans won’t do those jobs for below-the-table wages,” he added.

Supply and demand. Get the illegals out. Reduce home and rent prices through lowered demand.

Stave off supply issues by re-engaging young Americans in well-paid construction work and reducing regulations to build new homes. It’s not rocket science, folks.

https://dailycaller.com/2025/12/11/d...-unaffordable/