Deportations loom after Biden and Congress fail to extend ban



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WASHINGTON (AP) – A national moratorium on evictions is set to expire on Saturday night after President Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats worked hard but ultimately failed to align with a long-term strategy to prevent millions of Americans from being forced out of their homes during a wave of COVID-19.

More than 3.6 million Americans face eviction, some within days, as nearly $ 47 billion in federal housing assistance to states during the pandemic took a long time to reach tenants and of the owners. The moratorium expires at midnight.

Tensions mounted on Friday night when it became clear that no resolution was in sight. Hours before the ban expired, Biden called on local governments to “take all possible measures” to immediately disburse the funds. The evictions could start as early as Monday.

“There can be no excuse that a state or locality does not speed up funds for homeowners and tenants who have been injured during this pandemic,” Biden said in a statement.

“Every state and every local government must release these funds to ensure that we prevent all possible evictions,” he said.

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The astonishing result, as the White House and Congress each expected the other to act, revealed a rare rift between the president and his allies on Capitol Hill – a rift that could have a lasting impact as the Tenants across the country are facing widespread evictions.

Biden started the rush by announcing he would allow the ban on deportation to expire instead of challenging a recent Supreme Court ruling saying it would be the last deadline. He called on Congress on Thursday to quickly pass legislation to extend the date.

In the race to respond on Friday, Democrats struggled to rally the voices. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi implored her colleagues to pass legislation extending the deadline, calling it a “moral imperative” to protect tenants and landlords who must be compensated.

Congress must “meet the needs of the American people: both families unable to pay rent and those to whom rent must be paid,” she said in an overnight letter Thursday night.

But after hours of backstage wrangling throughout the day, Democratic lawmakers had questions and were unable to muster their support to extend the ban, even by a few months. House Republicans opposed an attempt to simply approve an extension by consent, without a formal vote. The Senate could try again on Saturday.

Democratic lawmakers were furious at the prospect of evictions amid a burgeoning pandemic.

“Housing is a primary social indicator of health, in and of itself, even in the absence of COVID,” said Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y. “A mass deportation to the United States represents a public health crisis in itself. “

Representative Maxine Waters, D-Calif., The chair of the Financial Services Committee that drafted the emergency bill, said House leaders should have held the vote, even if it failed, to show the Americans that they were trying to solve the problem.

“Is it urgent enough to prevent families from being put on the streets? Waters testified at a hearing Friday morning, urging his colleagues to act. “What the hell is going to happen to these kids?” “

But Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers from Washington, the leading Republican on another panel dealing with the issue, said the Democrats’ bill was rushed.

“This is not the way to legislate,” she said.

The ban was originally put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 from people put on the streets and in shelters.

Congress paid nearly $ 47 billion to states earlier in the COVID-19 crisis to support homeowners and tenants as workplaces closed and many people suddenly found themselves out of work.

But lawmakers have said state governments have been slow to distribute the money. On Friday, they said only $ 3 billion had been spent.

At the end of March, 6.4 million American households were behind on their rent, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. As of July 5, about 3.6 million people in the United States said they were at risk of deportation over the next two months, according to the US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.

Some places are likely to experience spikes in evictions from Monday, while other jurisdictions will see an increase in complaint filings that will lead to evictions over several months.

Biden said Thursday that the administration hands are tied after the Supreme Court signaled the moratorium would only be extended until the end of the month.

At the White House, Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration was supporting Congress’ effort “to extend the moratorium on evictions in order to protect these vulnerable tenants and their families.”

The White House has made it clear that Biden would have liked to extend the federal moratorium on evictions due to the spread of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus. But there were also concerns that the court challenge could lead to a ruling restricting the administration’s ability to respond to future public health crises.

The administration tries to keep the tenants in place by other means. It released more than $ 1.5 billion in rent assistance in June, helping nearly 300,000 households. Biden on Thursday called on the departments of Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs to extend their moratoria on evictions of households living in federally insured single-family homes. In a statement Friday evening, the agencies announced an extension of the lockdown ban until the end of September.

On a 5-4 vote last month, the Supreme Court allowed the general ban on deportation to continue until the end of July. One of the members of the majority, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, has made it clear that he will block any further extensions unless there is “clear and specific authorization from Congress.”

Assistants to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, said the two were working on legislation aimed at extending the moratorium and asking Republicans not to block it.

“The public health need for extensive tenant protection is obvious,” said Diane Yentel, executive director of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “If federal court cases made a full scale expansion impossible, the Biden administration should implement all possible alternatives, including a more limited moratorium on federally backed property.”

The owners, who have opposed the moratorium and have repeatedly challenged it in court, are against any extension. They too are pleading for an acceleration in the distribution of rent aid.

The National Apartment Association and several others this week filed a federal lawsuit seeking $ 26 billion in damages due to the impact of the moratorium.

“Any extension of the moratorium on evictions is tantamount to an unfunded government mandate that forces housing providers to provide an expensive service without compensation and imposes insurmountable debt on tenants,” said the association’s president and CEO. , Bob Pinnegar, adding that the current crisis highlights a need for more affordable housing.

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Casey reported from Boston. Associated Press editors Alexandra Jaffe, Mark Sherman, and Kevin Freking in Washington contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to say that the moratorium on evictions expires at midnight on Saturday, not that it has expired.

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