Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning’s refusal to handle housing discrimination cases in which the person complaining is an illegal immigrant is unusual, perhaps unique.

“I am not aware of any other attorney general who has raised that issue,” said Bryan Greene, deputy assistant secretary for enforcement and programs with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Fair Housing.

HUD has taken over Nebraska’s housing cases while two state agencies — the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission and the attorney general’s office — try to work out an agreement to cooperate. 

In surrounding states, and in local housing agencies, the immigration status of a person filing a complaint is not an issue.

“I don’t ask,” says Steve Chavez, executive director of the Colorado Division of Civil Rights.

His comment was echoed by others, citing federal and state housing discrimination laws.

“At the state level, we have a state housing anti-discrimination law, as long as you are a person, you are protected,” Chavez said.

Iowa civil rights staff say the same thing.

“I don’t recall anyone even asking that question,” said Teresa Baustian, an assistant attorney general in Iowa who works with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission.  

Bruning agrees that housing laws cover everyone, including illegal immigrants. But the attorney general says he is following another federal law that says illegal immigrants are not eligible for non-emergency state or local public benefits.

That’s not the way Joe Stecher, U.S. Attorney for Nebraska, interprets federal law. 

“When we file a case, we are not filing it on behalf of an individual. We are defending the federal (housing) law against a violation. 

“The person making the complaint could be a very important witness, but he’s not our client.  The agency is our client,” said Stecher, who could be working with HUD on Nebraska cases in the future if the NEOC-attorney general conflict isn’t resolved.

Baustian, who handles Iowa’s discrimination cases, says she personally has always argued that civil rights is a broad public benefit that improves civility, fairness and access for everyone.

The specific federal law that Bruning cites applies to public benefits where family income guidelines are used, like food stamps, aid to dependent children and public housing benefits, according to Rebecca Gould, executive director of the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest.

“The services being provided by the NEOC process don’t fit” with the public benefit in federal law, she said. 

It’s also unlikely an undocumented person would file a discrimination complaint, leaders in other states say.

People who don’t have proper documentation don’t want public exposure, they say. 

The Nebraska dispute is part of an ongoing conflict between the two agencies. NEOC leaders have said Bruning has consistently refused to take discrimination cases into court. Bruning says the cases are not well-investigated. 

But NEOC leaders contend Bruning has been unwilling to let his staff work with investigators in developing cases.

For several years, HUD has threatened to end its contract with the NEOC because of that contentious relationship. 

This month they carried out the threat. If not resolved, NEOC would lose about $240,000 a year, or about 12 percent of its annual budget.  

Last week, the two agencies appeared to be working out an agreement through which the attorney general’s staff would work with investigators during the investigation phase of cases, as they do in other states.

Then the immigration status issue arose, the cooperation discussion ended and the conflict escalated.

Over the next 30 days HUD will determine whether the disagreement between the two offices is worked out, said Greene.

“We are going to work with them to try to sort things out,” he said in a telephone interview Thursday.    

Gov. Dave Heineman, who brought representatives from the two agencies together last week, is not commenting on the controversy except to say he hopes they can reach a compromise.   

Thirty-seven states have contracts with HUD, which pays the states to handle housing discrimination complaints. Until recently, Nebraska was among those states.

Kansas, South Dakota and Wyoming are among 13 that don’t contract with HUD for housing cases, so the federal government handles the investigations.

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.