These Dallas Apartments Are Evicting Tenants Without Social Security Numbers

Danny Cendejas, with the Texas Organizing Project, talks with the Standard about what he’s doing to help people keep their homes.

By Alain StephensJuly 20, 2015 2:45 pm

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

In Dallas, a landlord is reportedly checking the immigration status of tenants and rejecting lease renewals to those who don’t have a social security number. 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, which is advocating on behalf of the tenants who are claiming 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 intimidates 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 e-mailed.”