Saturday, September 26, 2026

Is California Running A Shadow Welfare System For Illegal Immigrants:Yes it's the Democrats buying votes on the taxpayers dime

Is California Running A Shadow Welfare System For Illegal Immigrants

BY TYLER DURDEN
FRIDAY, SEP 25, 2026 - 08:00 PM

The state of California spends billions of state and local tax dollars each year on welfare benefits for illegal immigrants through programs built to sidestep federal restrictions on public assistance, according to a new reportfrom City Journal.

The report estimates that California taxpayers spent at least $11 billion subsidizing illegal immigrants during the last fiscal year. Federal law prohibits states from spending federal money on illegal immigrants, so Sacramento built a shadow welfare system financed with state and local funds and opened it to anyone who walks in. Residents paying the nation’s highest tax rates cover the tab. The pool of potential beneficiaries keeps growing, with more than a quarter of California's residents today foreign-born.

Reporters for the outlet visited four public-services offices across Southern California to see how the system works on the ground. Officials at every stop confirmed that illegal immigrants can sign up for benefits themselves or collect them through their children. Nobody seemed concerned about who might be asking.

The authors described the reception they got from caseworkers in Glendale and Los Angeles, where staff walked them through the eligibility rules for noncitizens.

Local officials were remarkably transparent. In Glendale, we spoke to a welfare officer about California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI), a state-funded alternative to Supplemental Security Income that provides monthly cash assistance to low-income noncitizens who are elderly or disabled.

 “If [you are] a citizen, you cannot get CAPI,” he said. “I don’t care about legal or not. Not being [a] citizen [is the key].”

 In Los Angeles, we heard more of the same. We asked another welfare officer about the benefits available to illegal immigrants and their children. While some state programs are closed to illegals, we learned, they are open to those aliens’ U.S.-born children.

For the children, the key program is CalWORKs, California's counterpart to the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Illegal immigrant parents remain ineligible themselves, yet they can draw payments on behalf of any child born in the United States.

"If you were born here and the child was born here, you get money for two," the welfare officer told the reporters. "Because she is not and the child is, she only gets money for the child, and not for her."

It all adds up quickly. Illegal immigrants can qualify for CAPI, public health coverage, and a range of tax credits, while their American-born children can tap CalWORKs and Section 8 housing vouchers on their own. A hypothetical household of five, with two illegal-immigrant parents, an illegal-immigrant grandparent, and two U.S.-born children could collect more than $100,000 a year in combined public benefits, a sum that exceeds the pretax income of plenty of working California families.

Health care accounts for the largest share. California carved out a state-only funding stream inside Medi-Cal to offer "full-scope" coverage to illegal immigrants, and about 1.7 million people signed up. The cost runs near $10 billion a year, more than double what the state's own legislative analyst projected. Gov. Gavin Newsom shows little embarrassment over the overrun. On a podcast, he boasted about his "controversial" decision to extend full Medi-Cal coverage to illegal immigrants.

Eligibility rules add another layer. The report details a legal designation state officials apply to certain migrants who would otherwise fall outside the programs.

California also uses a distinct legal category that enables certain migrants to qualify for state programs. The state deems certain aliens to be “permanently residing under color of law”—living in California with the “knowledge and permission” of immigration enforcement—and allows them to use this designation to enroll in Medi-Cal, CAPI, and other government programs. In practice, because aged or disabled individuals are typically not deported, this means elderly foreign retirees can arrive in California and receive extensive benefits.

In effect, California has built a retirement plan for foreigners and handed the bill to citizens struggling to fund their own.

BenefitsCal, the state's welfare application portal, tells CalWORKs applicants it will accept a "statement" that they "intend[s] to file or [is] taking steps to become federally eligible." A declaration of intent now doubles as documentation.

Of course, the gravy train for illegal immigrants extends beyond health care. In 2022, Newsom signed legislation opening taxpayer-funded food assistance to low-income illegal immigrants, and starting in October 2027, residents 55 and older will qualify regardless of immigration status, at an estimated added cost of up to $400 million a year.

California's Low Cost Auto Insurance Program advertises subsidized coverage "regardless of immigration status." In 2025, Newsom signed a law barring California LifeLine, a program that provides free phones and cell service, from requiring a Social Security number, essentially inviting illegals to use it. Meanwhile, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the governor's wife, has promoted the California Earned Income Tax Credit, whose materials assure applicants that having "no Social Security number" is "no problem." 

All this is happening while ordinary Californians drain their savings, work longer hours, and go into debt to cover rent, groceries, and one of the country's heaviest tax burdens, all to fund benefits for people who entered the country illegally.


Historic Bay Area district littered with needles, sees droves of overdoses: Stop calling them homeless, they are the drug addled

Historic Bay Area district littered with needles, sees droves of overdoses

Nearly 1,400 discarded needles have been collected around a pair of plazas in San Francisco’s Mission District as the city seeks to clean its streets and stave off drug overdoses.

Supervisor Jackie Fielder, whose district includes the two BART plazas, told Mission Local that since January, community ambassadors have handled as many as 1,538 hostile street situations.

The ambassadors — street workers who respond to certain emergency calls — also reversed 15 drug overdoses and collected 1,390 needles, she said.


“This shouldn’t be a statistic that we’re proud of because of just how large it is,” Fielder said. “But they collected 1,390 needles off the street.”


Addressing open-air drug use, illegal street vending and other problems around the Mission’s BART stations has been an ongoing effort involving Fielder, Mayor Daniel Lurie and other city officials. 

In March 2025, after Lurie pledged to crack down on drug dealing and illegal fencing, the two stations saw an increased police presence and later hosted community pop-ups aimed at turning the plazas into more welcoming, family-friendly public spaces.

Homeless people gather with their belongings and tents in the Mission District. AP

Fielder pushed for additional resources in July, sending Lurie a letter requesting 24/7 community ambassadors at the 16th and 24th Street BART stations. 

Lurie’s office rejected the request, citing the cost, according to the Mission Local.

The same letter also called on multiple city agencies to provide data that could be used to measure the progress of Lurie’s 90-day effort to improve conditions around the stations. 

Fielder said she now plans to send another letter to the mayor’s office seeking additional ambassadors, more street cleaning, police foot patrols and better data on visible drug use that does not rely solely on 911 calls.

A Department of Public Health worker uses tongs to pick discarded hypodermic needles in San Francisco. San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

“My long-term hope is that street conditions are acceptable to visitors and residents alike,” Fielder said, according to Mission Local. “We’ll know that we got there when people are not complaining about Mission Street conditions in my inbox.”

Fielder also announced on Instagram the launch of the city’s “16th and 24th Street BART Plazas Activation Dashboard,” which appears to address calls to measure whether street conditions are improving. 

The dashboard brings together data on illegal fencing, drug activity, 911 calls, street-cleaning requests and other conditions around both plazas.

Nearly 1,400 discarded needles have been collected around a pair of plazas in the Mission District. San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

City officials expect to update the dashboard monthly using information collected by several agencies.

The data begins in March 2026 and covers the period surrounding Lurie’s 90-day push, announced in June, to address conditions around the Mission BART stations.

According to the dashboard, drug-related 911 calls increased from 19 in March to 35 in May before falling to 17 in August. Calls to the city 311 hotline regarding trash rose from 88 in March to 113 in August, and street-cleaning requests within one block of the BART plazas fell from 420 in March to 316 in August.


A number of syringes are scattered in the remains of a tent city being cleared by city workers in San Francisco. AP

Fielder has said that eliminating street-cleaning complaints altogether is likely unrealistic.

It is “probably not feasible to get to zero street-cleaning requests in the Mission. But, I would like to see us get much fewer 311 cleaning requests,” she told the Mission Local.


US medical schools have gone DEI-crazy — with deadly results

OPINION 

US medical schools have gone DEI-crazy — with deadly results


Racism plagues American health care — reverse racism.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division just brought another case against a top medical school for blatant discrimination against white and Asian applicants: Blacks applying to the University of California at San Francisco’s med school get admitted at almost 13 times the rate of similarly qualified white applicants. 

Black and Hispanic students the school admitted from 2023 to ’25 averaged lower test scores and undergraduate grades than the average white and Asian applicant the school rejected.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon’s letter blasting UCSF follows similar ones to UCLA, UCSD and Yale; virtually every other US med school is likely as bad, but she’s building the evidence before she strikes.

The University of Pennsylvania offers a path for students at eight other colleges to enter medical school without taking the MCAT at all — and five of the eight are historically black colleges.

At the University of Texas-Southwestern, per data from medical-accountability watchdog Do No Harm, “black applicants had 21 times the odds of acceptance compared to white applicants with similar academic credentials,” to choose another.  



Separate Data Show Higher Mental-Health Distress


TARRANT/FORT WORTH 

Reported ‘Transexual’ Suspect Arrested Over Threats To Texas Rep

Dallas Express  | Sep 25, 2026 

Tarrant County, Texas. Inmate Search Records.

Modern federal health datasets and peer-reviewed studies typically use terms such as “transgender” rather than “transexual.”


https://dallasexpress.com/tarrant/reported-transexual-suspect-arrested-over-threats-to-texas-rep/ct Arrested Over Threats To Texas Rep

Reported "Transexual" Suspect Booked After Alleged Threats To Rep. Lowe | L: Natalie Fleur Braden | Image by Tarrant County Inmate Search; R: Rep. Lowe, David - District 91 | Image by Texas House of Representatives/web 

A Tarrant County suspect described by Current Revolt as a “transexual individual” was arrested this week on a terroristic-threat charge after allegedly sending threatening messages to Republican Texas state Rep. David Lowe.

Natalie Fleur Braden was booked September 23 on a terroristic-threat charge, according to a public booking index that says its record is sourced from official Tarrant County booking data. The record lists a $500 bond.

A criminal charge is an allegation. Braden is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.


Who Is Rep. David Lowe?

Lowe represents Texas House District 91, which includes part of Tarrant County.

According to his official Texas House biography, Lowe served as a military police officer in the U.S. Army and completed four overseas tours, including two combat deployments to Afghanistan. He retired from the Army in 2015 and later pursued a law-enforcement career after graduating from the Texas Peace Officer’s Academy in 2018.


What Texas Law Says About Terroristic Threats

Texas’ terroristic-threat statute covers several categories of threatened violence and does not require conduct typically associated with large-scale terrorism.

Under Texas Penal Code Section 22.07, a person commits the offense by threatening to commit an offense involving violence against a person or property while acting with one of several specified intentions.

Those include intending to cause an emergency response, place another person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury, interrupt use of a public place or service, place the public or a substantial group of people in fear of serious bodily injury, or influence the activities of a federal, state, or local government branch or agency.

The offense level depends on the conduct alleged.

A threat intended to place a person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury is generally a Class B misdemeanor. The law elevates that form of the offense to a Class A misdemeanor in certain circumstances, including when it is committed against a public servant. Other provisions of the statute can carry felony penalties.



Separate Data Show Higher Mental-Health Distress

Separate from Braden’s case, federal health data and peer-reviewed research have documented higher rates of reported mental-health distress among adults categorized as “transgender” than among cisgender adults.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis of 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data from 26 states, including Texas, found substantially higher rates of frequent mental distress and a history of depression among respondents identifying as “transgender” compared with cisgender respondents.

The CDC defined frequent mental distress as reporting poor mental health during at least 14 of the previous 30 days.

Frequent mental distress was reported by 37.2% of respondents categorized as “transgender” female, 39.8% of respondents categorized as “transgender” male, and 51.8% of respondents categorized as “transgender” gender-nonconforming.

The comparable rate among cisgender respondents was 15.7%.

The CDC also found a history of depression among 47.4% of “transgender” female respondents, 48.8% of “transgender” male respondents, and 67.2% of “transgender” gender-nonconforming respondents, compared with 21.4% of cisgender respondents.

Newer peer-reviewed research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in May 2026 found a similar disparity.

Researchers analyzed data from the 2022 KFF/The Washington Post Trans Survey involving 1,338 U.S. adults. They found frequent mental distress among 47% of “transgender” and “gender-diverse” adults, compared with 21% of cisgender adults.

The study also found unmet mental-health needs among 48% of “transgender” and “gender-diverse adults,” compared with 26% of cisgender adults.


The Dallas Express Previously Covered Threat Against Tarrant County Judge

Tarrant County has dealt with other alleged threats against public officials this year.

As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Cesar Vizcaya-Raudales was arrested in January after authorities accused him of threatening Tarrant County Criminal Court Judge Charles Vanover and law enforcement.

DX obtained copies of alleged Facebook posts that included the statements “Kill this judge” and “Kill law enforcement.”

Vizcaya-Raudales was arrested January 13 on charges involving a terroristic threat and harassment and was held on two bonds totaling $1.5 million, according to the earlier DX report.

“Threatening our judges is unacceptable and you will go to jail,” Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn said in the release cited by DX. “There is nowhere you can hide that we won’t find you when you make threats towards a public official.”


Braden’s case remains in its early stages. Additional details about the alleged messages, the precise charge, and the evidence supporting the arrest could emerge if an arrest affidavit or other court documents become publicly available.


CNN will lie to you about everything

CNN Quietly Admits They Were Not Denied Access to Trump-Xi Dinner. Here Were Their Demands.

This is proof they were not civil rights attorneys but rather political operatives. I'm willing to bet they're all Democrats and America haters

GOOD RIDDANCE: 300 of 400 DOJ Civil Rights Attorneys QUIT Rather Than Clean America’s Voter Rolls and KILL DEI — Dhillon Says They “Self-Deported”


Assistant  Harmeet Dhillon just confirmed what every honest observer already knew: the old Civil Rights Division was a woke fortress inside Main Justice.

When President Trump’s team told those lawyers the American people had voted to end illegal DEI discrimination and scrub dirty voter rolls, about 300 of the division’s 400 attorneys walked out.

Dhillon did not mourn them. She called it what it was.

In an interview this week with Col. Kurt Schlichter filling in on the Hugh Hewitt Show, Dhillon said the Civil Rights Division is one of the largest shops at Main Justice in Washington.

When she arrived, it had about 400 attorneys. After her office made clear it would implement the president’s , “prioritizing getting rid of DEI and cleaning up voter rolls,” “eventually about 300 of those attorneys quit, and so they self-deported.”

Then she rebuilt.

“We then had the task of, while we had DOJ restrictions and budgetary constraints, building back the Civil Rights Division,” Dhillon said. “And I’m really happy to say that I recruited over 100 great legal professionals here to the DOJ.”

WATCH:



As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, Dhillon told Tucker Carlson last year that holdouts inside the division held “crying sessions” and “unhappy hours” after she made it clear the era of weaponized civil-rights law was over. According to the New York Post, she later said those lawyers “self-deported with a nice golden parachute from the government.” She didn’t fire them. She told them the job had changed. They left.

The numbers line up with other reporting. Bloomberg Law reported this month that more than 300 of the division’s 400-plus lawyers departed over the past 19 months as Dhillon redirected the office toward voter-roll enforcement, campus discrimination, and religious-liberty cases.

What did those lawyers refuse to do?


They refused to treat race discrimination as race discrimination when the victims were Asian students, white applicants, or anyone else locked out by DEI. They refused to help states stop illegal voting. They refused to treat dirty rolls — dead registrants, movers, duplicates, and noncitizens — as a civil-rights problem for actual American citizens.

The Gateway Pundit has documented that fight for months. TGP reported last December that a limited review of 47.5 million records turned up more than 260,000 dead people still on the rolls and thousands of noncitizens registered for federal elections.

In March, Dhillon said a review of 50 to 60 million records had found hundreds of thousands of ineligible registrations, including more than 300,000 dead voters still listed. The division has sued states that stonewalled the data and put election officials on notice that knowingly leaving noncitizens on the rolls can be a federal crime.

That is the work the old guard would not touch.

Dhillon told Schlichter the rebuilt division is now operating as one unit. The priorities, she said, are the ones voters chose: stopping race discrimination in hiring, helping states stop illegal voting, cleaning , going after universities that take federal money and still discriminate, targeting antisemitism on campus, and prosecuting church blockades, including the so-called protesters in Minnesota who obstructed churchgoers.

“We’re just really proud of the work that we’ve done here in the Civil Rights Division,” she said, pointing to findings letters against universities for ongoing discrimination after the Supreme Court’s fair-admissions ruling and to new categories of cases the old division would never have opened.