Vice President JD Vance explained Thursday that a surge in illegal immigration, coupled with a lack of new home construction, sent housing prices soaring — putting the American Dream out of reach for many.
“A lot of young people are saying housing is way too expensive. Why is that? Because we flooded the country with 30 million illegal immigrants,” Vance said during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
The VP argued illegal immigrants were “taking houses that ought by right go to American citizens” at a time when the country wasn’t “building enough new houses to begin with.”
Under former President Joe Biden, the country faced one of the largest immigration influxes in US history.
An average of 2.4 million immigrants per year poured into the US between 2021 and 2024, according to the Congressional Budget Office. About 60% crossed into the US illegally, a Goldman Sachs analysis found.
Upon taking office in January, President Trump quickly moved to seal off the US-Mexico border and ramp up deportations of illegal immigrants in response to the Biden crisis.
“Under the Biden administration, the price of a new home literally doubled in four years,” Vance said. “It went up 100%.”
“Under the Trump administration, housing and rent prices are up about 1% to 2% – actually in line with what you would like to see.”
The vice president said the Trump administration is focused on “trying to make it easier to build houses,” which the country needs a lot more of.
“We probably need to build about 5 million new homes,” Vance told Hannity.
Republican-led states are “actually doing a very good job” at keeping up with housing demands, whereas Democrat-led states are lagging, according to the VP.
“One of the biggest challenges that we have in the housing market, aside from too many illegal aliens who are taking the houses of American citizens, is that in the blue states, you’re not building enough houses,” Vance said, blaming regulatory burdens builders face in states such as California.
The vice president also suggested that better technology — like robots — could help boost the supply of housing without hurting construction workers.
“No robot can replace a great blue collar construction worker,” Vance said, “but can a robot maybe make it easier for a construction worker to put more nails in more walls over a shorter period of time, some of the rote things?”
“You’re going to see, I think, robotics help the construction workers – and I think that’s going to lead to higher wages and it’s also going to lead to more homes for American citizens.”
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