Anti-ICE riots force HUD offices to shutter weeks after 'Squad' Dem, Maxine Waters said Trump would close them
The temporary closures due to the violence come just weeks after Democrats such as California Rep. Maxine Waters and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib claimed HUD field offices would permanently close due to Department of Government Efficiency efforts, with Waters saying such closures would affect "families and communities across the country who rely on HUD for housing assistance, community and economic development projects."
HUD Secretary Scott Turner exclusively told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that liberals' claims in recent weeks that HUD would shutter field offices were "fake news" while lambasting Democrats for "encouraging riots" that have caused the three offices to temporarily shutter.
"The left and legacy media spread fake news over false reports that HUD is closing field offices," Turner told Fox News Digital Tuesday. "Now they're encouraging riots that have actually forced at least three field offices to temporarily close."
"Democrat-run blue states like California are suffering from failed leadership, resulting in record homelessness, unchecked illegal alien crime and, as we're seeing now on full display, pandemonium, chaos and destruction," he added. "The American people deserve better. HUD will continue to serve communities in the face of this reckless violence while prioritizing safety and security."
Now, three field offices are temporarily closed as riots and protests spiral in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City. Los Angeles has seen widespread riots since Friday, when federal law enforcement officials converged on the city to conduct immigration raids as part of President Donald Trump's campaign vow to deport the millions of illegal immigrants who crossed the border under the Biden administration.
Other anti-ICE protests have broken out in New York City and San Francisco since the L.A. riots began, which have led to dozens of arrests.
Fox News Digital obtained more than a dozen images showing graffiti strewn across a federal building in downtown L.A., which is home to a HUD field office. HUD's satellite office is located just blocks from City Hall, where some of the violent riots have unfolded.
Media outlets earlier in 2025 ran headlines that the Trump administration had plans to shutter dozens of HUD field offices across the country, which was reported as a potential violation of federal law as HUD must be represented in each state. Turner said on X on Tuesday that his department "hasn't closed a single field office."
Waters led a group of Democrat lawmakers and anti-DOGE protesters in March in an attempt to enter HUD headquarters and hand-deliver a protest letter to Turner that demanded "answers on efforts to decimate federal housing programs."
Waters, and a handful of other House Democrats, were permitted to enter HUD headquarters, while the California Democrat warned they would "stay all night" until they met with Turner, Breitbart News exclusively reported in March. HUD staffers informed the group they would deliver the letter to Turner, while Waters protested for a meeting with the HUD secretary.
Tlaib also attempted to take part in the gaggle of lawmakers demanding to meet with Turner, but was seen stopped at HUD's entrance in video footage. Tlaib was heard shouting,"You don't give a sh--!" at HUD employees as the group of lawmakers and DOGE protesters ultimately left the building without meeting with Turner.
A month after the HUD trip, Waters sent a letter in April to the Government Accountability Office's comptroller and HUD's acting inspector general calling for an investigation into allegations "the Administration plans to shut down local field offices and terminate housing agency staff."
"I am concerned about what effects this will have on families and communities across the country who rely on HUD for housing assistance, community and economic development projects, as well as enforcement of federal fair housing and civil rights laws," Waters wrote in the letter.
"Employees across approximately 54 field offices have localized expertise and work in communities to carry out face-to-face technical assistance, provide timely guidance to local grantees and officials to help speed up project timelines, and manage oversight and enforcement of federal statutes in each region," she continued. "The Trump Administration's proposal to close 34 field offices would severely disrupt federal housing programs, stall local development projects, and threaten the jobs of approximately 360 full-time employees."
Fox News Digital reached out to Waters' and Tlaib's respective offices inquiring whether they are still concerned about HUD office closures due to violence in the left-wing cities, but did not immediately receive responses.
Riots broke out in L.A. on Friday evening after federal law enforcement officials converged on the city to carry out immigration raids. Local leaders such as Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom quickly denounced the raids in public statements while offering words of support for illegal immigrants in the state.
Protests over the raids soon devolved into violence as rioters targeted federal law enforcement officials, including launching rocks at officials, with videos showing people looting local stores, setting cars on fire and taking over a freeway.
Trump announced on Saturday that he was deploying 2,000 National Guard members to help quell the violence, and the administration deployed hundreds of Marines to respond to anti-immigration chaos on Monday evening as the violence continued.
"If I didn't 'SEND IN THE TROOPS' to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great City would be burning to the ground right now," Trump posted to Truth Social on Tuesday morning.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
43 minutes ago
- Fox News
Dem governor criticizes Mamdani for not condemning 'blatantly antisemitic' rhetoric
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, slammed Democratic socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for not condemning "blatantly antisemitic" rhetoric while campaigning to lead New York City. "I'll say this about Mamdani or any other leader," Shapiro reportedly said in an interview with Jewish Insider. "If you want to lead New York, you want to lead Pennsylvania, you want to lead the United States of America, you're a leader." "I don't care if you're a Republican or Democratic leader or a democratic socialist leader," the governor reportedly added. "You have to speak and act with moral clarity, and when supporters of yours say things that are blatantly antisemitic, you can't leave room for that to just sit there. You've got to condemn that." "He seemed to run a campaign that excited New Yorkers," Shapiro, a possible 2028 presidential candidate, said of Mamdani's economic proposals. "He also seemed to run a campaign where he left open far too much space for extremists to either use his words or for him to not condemn the words of extremists that said some blatantly antisemitic things." Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani's campaign for comment but did not immediately hear back. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who endorsed Mamdani after losing to him in the June Democratic primary, came to his defense. "Let's be clear: Zohran Mamdani won the votes of a large majority of NYC Democrats, including thousands of proud Jews like me, inspired by his vision of a city everyone can afford and confident about his commitment to combating antisemitism and hate," Lander said in a statement, according to Politico. "Josh Shapiro won't help keep Jews safe in NYC or Pennsylvania by feeding Trump's narrative about our Democratic nominee for mayor." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeen Jeffries, both New York Democrats, have so far withheld endorsements of Mamdani, expressing concern over the mayoral hopeful's comments on Israel. Mamdani drew backlash for refusing to condemn the slogan "globalize the intifada." He has since backtracked while courting New York City business leaders, saying he would no longer use the phrase and would discourage his supporters from using it. Meanwhile, New York City college campuses, including Columbia University, have faced rising antisemitism and anti-Israel protests and encampments in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas terrorists in Israel. Mamdani has defended BDS, or Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, saying at a May town hall that the anti-Israel movement "is consistent with my core of my politics, which is nonviolence." New York has been pivotal to controlling the House majority over the past three elections. Democrats in battleground districts especially have attempted to distance themselves from Mamdani. That includes Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., who said Mamdani's primary win should be a "loud wake-up call for the Democratic Party." Rep. Laura Gillen, another Democrat from a Long Island swing district, said that Mamdani, a socialist, "is too extreme to lead New York City," accusing the mayoral hopeful of promoting "a deeply disturbing pattern of unacceptable antisemitic comments." Punchbowl News reported last month that some New York Democratic members of Congress "literally ran away" from reporters asking about Mamdani's candidacy. Meanwhile, progressives, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., have embraced Mamdani, now considered the front-runner ahead of the November general election. Ocasio-Cortez and Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear – another two possible 2028 presidential contenders – have praised Mamdani's primary victory as a lesson for Democrats. While Mamdani's campaign attempted to appeal to working-class voters by stressing economic injustice and housing affordability, he is the Ugandan-born son of an acclaimed Indian filmmaker and a Columbia University professor. His proposals also echo socialist and communist principles, including government-run grocery stores, rent freezes and abolishing prisons. Mamdani defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo by more than 12 percentage points last month, securing the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City. Mamdani still faces Cuomo, who formally declared his independent mayoral bid earlier this month. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams is also running as an independent, as is former federal prosecutor Jim Walden. "Guardian Angels" founder Curtis Sliwa is the Republican mayoral candidate. At a Jewish heritage night in early July, Adams encouraged Jewish New Yorkers not to flee the city and slammed Mamdani for saying that he would look into increasing taxes in wealthier and "whiter" neighborhoods. "You have the right to be in this city and anywhere in this country," Adams said, according to the Times of Israel. "Don't live in fear, don't live in anxiety. This city belongs to you as it belongs to every group that lives in this city."
Fox News
2 hours ago
- Fox News
Mamdani's former Dem colleague rails against his signature campaign promise: 'Nail in the coffin'
A former New York City Democratic assembly member, who now runs the New York Apartment Association, tells Fox News Digital that socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's rent freeze plan would be disastrous for the city's housing crisis. "His proposal to freeze the rent on rent-stabilized housing, which is almost 40% of housing stock within New York City, a housing stock that is already under the stress by which the NYU Furman Center has categorized as 200,000 units functionally bankrupt. A rent freeze would be the nail in the coffin on this housing stock," NYAA CEO Kenny Burgos told Fox News Digital. "So if he's attempting to achieve affordability, what he's instead going to achieve is insolvency." Mamdani has faced criticism from some experts over his plan to freeze rent for certain tenants in New York City. His campaign website states, "As Mayor, Zohran will immediately freeze the rent for all stabilized tenants, and use every available resource to build the housing New Yorkers need and bring down the rent. The number one reason working families are leaving our city is the housing crisis. The Mayor has the power to change that." Burgos told Fox News Digital that the housing problem in the first place was "perpetuated by the government." "Government controls most of the costs that goes into housing, the largest of which is property taxes and when it comes to rent-stabilized housing, the government caps the revenues on this housing," Burgos explained. "So if we were to solve this affordability crisis, we have to begin by decreasing the cost to operating housing. First step is property tax. Next will be insurance, then we can talk labor, fuel, water. There's a host of costs that the government has impact on, and we have to have these conversations as opposed to just capping rents." Burgos told Fox News Digital that his organization represents owners of all sizes, from small properties to large, many of which have operated for decades, and they have told him the current situation is the "worst crisis" since the 1970s. "So when you have a potential mayor who's coming in and whose number one policy position is to freeze the rent, the very revenue that makes this housing run while all other expenses continue to increase at extremely high levels, even higher than inflation, and we are headed for a cliff that we may not be able to get back off of, and when you talk about New York City's housing problem as a whole, not just around stabilized housing, but it has public housing and all other housing involved, I mean, this is a catastrophe waiting to happen," Burgos said. Burgos outlined his belief that the "irony" of Mamdani's proposal is that low-income and working-class voters, who Mamdani has championed on campaign stops, will actually be hurt by his housing policies. "Unfortunately this crisis is felt acutely in some of the lower-income neighborhoods, particularly communities of color and while they would absolutely benefit from a potential relief on increase in bills, we can talk about that relief through targeted programs from the government," Burgos, who served in the assembly with Mamdani, said. "But when you blanket it, you actually subject these individuals and these families to subpar housing and potentially the collapse of their building. So this is one of those short-term band-aids that end up into a really, really long-term wound." Burgos told Fox News Digital that he understands housing is one of the top issues facing New Yorkers but argued that the answer isn't "simply giving out slogans" but rather "addressing affordability and addressing costs head on" which sometimes involves "really tough conversations." Burgos went on to explain that the majority of New York City's funding comes from property taxes and that Mamdani will have a difficult time achieving his "big ticket proposals" with a housing plan that will "decimate and destroy" the very housing that supports that funding. Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani's campaign for comment.
Fox News
2 hours ago
- Fox News
New twist in Kilmar Abrego Garcia court battle: 'Judges will be checked'
Former federal prosecutor and acting ICE Director Jonathan Fahey weighs in a judge pausing Kilmar Abrego Garcia's release and the rise in ICE detainers in New York City.
