Onlookers taken aback by Scott Turner's anti-immigrant claim: 'An embarrassment'

A Trump cabinet secretary is the target of online backlash after making a shocking claim about immigrants.

Scott Turner, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said during an appearance on Fox News that "tens of millions of illegal aliens came across our borders unchecked," and that "because of that, it put a great strain on our housing market."

He argued that only American citizens should be allowed to live in HUD-funded housing, punctuating the point by remarking, "American taxpayers' dollars are meant to be for American people only."

Turner was met unkindly on X, where commentators let him have it for going after immigrants and not backing his claim up with evidence.

"Scott Turner is not the worst member of Trump's cabinet. But he is an embarrassment to the office he holds and the oath he took," Norman Ornstein, a political scientist and contributing editor for The Atlantic, posted.

"Immigrants have added $3.7 trillion in housing wealth for U.S. homeowners," political strategist Sawyer Hackett pointed out.

"A cabinet of toadies and serial liars," wrote Dennis Kavanaugh, the chair of the Industrial Commission of Arizona. "Ask him to produce evidence to support his claim."

The popular political account Wu Tang is for the Children brought back a wild Trump claim by joking, "And eating their cats and dogs too?" in reaction to Turner's claim.