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These Dallas Apartments Are Evicting Tenants Without Social Security Numbers

Danny Cendejas with the Texas Organizing Project is doing what he can to help people without social security cards keep their homes.
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Danny Cendejas with the Texas Organizing Project is doing what he can to help people without social security cards keep their homes.

From Texas Standard:

Immigration is often discussed in terms of government policy and official enforcement efforts – or lack thereof, depending on whom you ask. But when citizens take actions into their own hands, the dimensions of the discussion get more complicated.

In Dallas, one landlord is reportedly checking the immigration status of tenants and rejecting lease renewals of those who don’t have social security numbers. Now some people are urging Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and the Dallas City Council to step in and stop these unofficial immigration checks.

Danny Cendejas is with the Texas Organizing Project, a group advocating on behalf of the tenants, who are claiming fair housing discrimination by their landlord.

On what Texas Organizing Project is doing:

“We’re making sure that the mayor and the city council take a stand for these immigrant families, because we know the value that immigrants bring to the city of Dallas.”

On how the apartment’s management company has reportedly intimidated tenants to leave:

“They coerce the resident into signing a form of intent to move out, as if it’s coming from the resident, and they say that it’s because they didn’t meet the requirements.”

On why Texas Organizing Project hasn’t sorted out the problem with Knightvest Management:

“We’ve reached out to the company in multiple ways. We’ve gone in person to the office, on property. We’ve gone to their corporate office here in Dallas. We’ve called. We’ve emailed.”

Copyright 2020 KUT 90.5. To see more, visit KUT 90.5.

Alain Stephens heads up investigative reports for Texas Standard. A graduate of the University of North Texas and a veteran of two of the U.S. armed forces, Alain served both in the Coast Guard and the Air Force. His work has won accolades for exposing how the state pays those with disabilities below minimum wage, as well as the fast-tracking of juveniles to adult prisons. Contact Alain at astephens@kut.org, or (512) 232-6173.