Wednesday, April 8, 2026
Government and your tax dollars:r ife with fraud, losing roughly an estimated $6 billion to $12 billion yearly to scammers.
The obscure California program that loses billions every year to scammers
In an exclusive investigation, we shine a light on one of California’s largest health care initiatives: the In-Home Supportive Services Program, or IHSS.
Thus far, coverage of fraud in California has focused on alleged schemes related to unemploymentinsurance, hospice care, and food stamps.
IHSS pays family members and other individuals to provide home-based care for the elderly and disabled— at a cost of nearly $30 billion per year.
California offers the program through Medi-Cal, its version of Medicaid, and pays providers with a combination of federal, state, and county funds.
On the surface, IHSS presents itself as an instrument of compassion, directing billions to caregivers who help with cooking, personal care, laundry, and other daily needs inside recipients’ home
But a growing number of experts and critics argue that the program is rife with fraud, losing roughly an estimated $6 billion to $12 billion yearly to scammers.
Meantime, the state’s powerful home-care unions collect more than $149 million in membership dues, funneling money into the political network supporting Gavin Newsom and California Democrats.
This is the story of a government that has allowed compassion to become a mask for fraud, creating a self-reinforcing system that keeps the Democratic establishment in power.
In 1973, California created what became the IHSS program to provide in-home care to the elderly and disabled. The IHSS caseload exploded in the 1980s, prompting the state to impose hour caps on care providers.
IHSS has long been considered a magnet for fraud.
In 2009, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger estimated that up to 25 percent of IHSS claims were fraudulent. After growth of the program’s rolls exploded in the early 2000s, Schwarzenegger signedlegislation aimed at curbing abuse.
But soon after the law’s passage, a state workgroup, teaming with representatives from “labor organizations,” introduced a key loophole that barred regulators from conducting fully randomized, unannounced home visits, leaving the program more exposed to scammers.
Since then, the program has expanded dramatically again. “IHSS provider” has become the largest low-wage occupation statewide, with more than 800,000 taxpayer-funded caregivers offering everything from grocery shopping to personal care.
The system operates largely on trust. Providers self-report their timecards and check-in records. In roughly 60 percent of cases, providers and beneficiaries live together
County-level fraud controls appear to be lacking. Even when complaints are lodged, investigations apparently can be slow, and prosecutions slower still.
According to the state’s Department of Social Services, for one 12-month period between 2023 and 2024, counties received nearly 7,000 fraud complaints; 28 counties recorded 964 fraud investigations, resulting in just 39 cases prosecuted.
California, in other words, is sending billions of dollars per year to a program that is easy to exploit, difficult to administer, and almost impossible to supervise.
In 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice announced prosecutions for alleged IHSS fraud in California. In one case, the DOJ alleged that San Dimas resident Giacomo Lorenzo Garbarino billed the state for more than $170,000 in fraudulent IHSS and Medi-Cal services over a five-year period. The patient in his care was reportedly hospitalized or living in a facility at the time and thus ineligible for IHSS reimbursement.
Last year, federal officials announced another round of IHSS fraud prosecutions. In one case, prosecutors alleged that Maryam Erambakhsh falsely claimed payments for caring for her parents while they were outside the United States.
These cases may be the tip of the iceberg. Haywood Talcove, CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions for Government and a nationally recognized fraud expert, estimates that annual IHSS fraud could amount to 20 percent to 40 percent of total program spending. Applied to projected IHSS outlays for fiscal year 2025–26, that suggests roughly $6 billion to $12 billion in losses.
Multiple senior officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have described a similar pattern, estimating that about 25 percent of the Medi-Cal budget is lost to fraud. The share is likely higher for IHSS, given the program’s structure and its susceptibility to abuse.
Earlier this year, Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, set off a firestorm of controversy with the claim that criminal networks, including the “Russian Armenian mafia,” were running massive hospice and home care scams in LA. He suggested that Armenians in LA were disproportionately represented among the leaders of hospice fraud rings.
One red flag for social-services fraud, Talcove suggested, is high community usage rates, and Armenian speakers in Los Angeles do appear to be significantly overrepresented among the county’s IHSS providers and recipients.
High utilization rates do not, on their own, prove fraud. But analysts such as Talcove argue that “organized criminal groups” are “taking advantage of the program at scale.” Using a conservative 25 percent fraud estimate—within Talcove’s range and consistent with HHS officials’ broader Medi-Cal assessments —scammers may have siphoned at least $35 billion from IHSS during Gavin Newsom’s administration.
Newsom has no incentive to crack down on a program that is enriching his most powerful political allies.
Despite some initial noise about reform, Newsom has sought to increase IHSS funding by an additional $1.1 billion, to a total of $33.4 billion, boasting that his administration has invested billions of state taxpayer dollars into the program. (When we reached out to Newsom’s office for this story, a California Department of Social Services spokesman said that “[f]raud in the IHSS program is not widespread.”)
Given these political realities, the only plausible check on IHSS may come from Washington.
The Trump administration could condition federal funding on rigorous audits and structural reforms. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could require California to mandate re-registration of all caregivers and recipients using third-party identity verification and expand random, unannounced visits.
Absent such intervention, the corruption in California is unlikely to abate. It will take a countervailing authority — willing to confront not only fraudsters but also the political system that sustains them — to force meaningful change.
Christopher F. Rufo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and the author of America’s Cultural Revolution. Kenneth Schrupp is an investigative reporter at City Journal.https://nypost.com/2026/04/08/opinion/the-california-program-that-loses-billions-to-scammers/
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The people the anti ICE protesters want to protect
ICE agents shoot 18th Street Gang member who ‘weaponized his vehicle’ in California
Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Tuesday shot a gang member who tried to run them down with his car as they moved to arrest him, officials said.
The ICE agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop in the Central Valley town of Patterson to arrest 18th Street Gang member Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, who is wanted in El Salvador in connection to a murder, according to authorities.
Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, said in a statement that Hernandez tried to run the agents down as they moved to take him into custody.
“As officers approached the car, the wanted gang member weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run an officer over,” said Lyons.
“Following their training, our officers fired defensive shots to protect themselves, their fellow agents, and the public,” he added.
Hernandez was taken to a local hospital, Lyons said. Federal agents on the scene are investigating the incident.
The condition of Hernandez was unknown.
A dramatic dashcam video of the shooting shows the moment Hernandez turned on the ICE agents.
The video starts with the witness’s car turning onto Del Puerto canyon road at I-5.
Agents have Hernandez pulled over to the right of the road between two enforcement vehicles.
A one agent appears to open the driver side door of the black hatchback driven by Herandez, the car peels out in reverse, and the agents draw their weapons.
Hernandez slams his car into the ICE truck parked behind him, ripping the passenger side door from his hatchback.
The hatchback driven by Hernandez then races forward and onto the road, at another ICE agent who jumps out of the way.
The hatchback makes a U turn and jumps the median, into oncoming traffic.
It’s unclear when officers fired on Hernandez or when he was stopped. Images from the scene show the hatchback with bullet holes in the windshield.
ICE has not said how many shots were fired. The agency has not said when Hernandez came to the US or provided any other details on his activities or background.
The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office said it is “assisting with an officer-involved shooting in our jurisdiction involving agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” in a post on Facebook.
“At this time, we can confirm that no local law enforcement was involved in the incident,” the sheriff’s office said.
The exact site of the incident remains unclear but the sheriff’s office said the on- and off-ramps on Interstate 5 at Sperry Avenue near Patterson are closed for the remainder of the day, and video shows an ongoing investigation at that location.
There will be a large law enforcement presence in the area while the investigation continues, with significant traffic delays, the sheriff’s office said.
The 18th Street Gang, also known as Barrio 18, is a gigantic and extremely violent transnational criminal organization founded in Los Angeles in the 1960s more than 50,000 members across the US, Mexico, and Central America.
Known for murder and extortion, 18th Street is closely allied with the Mexican Mafia and controls a large portion of the narcotics trade in Los Angeles and around the country.
The gang has been a target for ICE agents and local police alike.
Los Angeles Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in February orchestrated a massive takedown of the 18th Street gang’s leadership in LA, where it is known as the largest street gang in the city.
Operation Dead Horse resulted more than a dozen arrests for racketeering, murder, and drug trafficking. The operation aimed to dismantle the gang’s control over a portion of MacArthur Park.
During the investigation, federal and local law enforcement seized more than 175 pounds of methamphetamine and fentanyl from 18th Street members and associates.
On the last day of the operation, March 6, officers seized $80,000 in cash, 10 pounds of fentanyl, five pounds of methamphetamine, and six firearms.
ICE agents in California in recent weeks have made a number of gang related arrests.
Federal immigration agents in San Diego last month captured a machete-wielding MS-13 executioner known as “the witch” who was wanted for a brutal gang murder in his home country of El Salvador.
David Antonio Aviles Perez, 35, had been sought on an international warrant for aggravated murder by authorities in El Salvador.
Aviles Perez was also arrested in 2023 for assault with a deadly weapon after he allegedly swung a machete at a man in Monterey, California.
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Teacher's unions have become a cancer on the country. Government run schools should not be unionized!
COMMENTARY
Is the End of the American Federation of Teachers in Sight?
A recent poll found that a clear majority of Americans favor limiting politics in the classroom. This is bad news for teachers’ unions, who often advocate against that very thing.
Consider the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). With 1.8 million members, the AFT is one of the largest teachers’ unions in the country. It has gained prominence less for advancing classroom outcomes and more for engaging in political activism far removed from instruction. This political activism has been evident recently, as illustrated by AFT president Randi Weingarten speaking at a “No Kings” protest in Minnesota and the organization’s increasing focus on anti-ICE efforts.
Taken together, these developments reveal a widening gap between teachers’ unions and both the public and the educators they claim to represent. Rather than focusing on classroom instruction and professional support, large unions have increasingly prioritized ideological activism, often at the expense of students, parents, and even their own members.
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Teachers’ unions should focus solely on supporting educators, students, and their families. On paper, this may be what many teachers’ unions claim to do. The mission of the AFT, for example, is to “champion fairness; democracy; economic opportunity; and high-quality public education.” But there’s a difference between theory and practice. Realistically, the actions of larger teachers’ unions, such as the AFT, aren’t aligned with these objectives.
Adamantly pushing political agendas—such as LGBTQ+ practices or advocating for biological boys to be able to compete in girls’ sports—in schools across the country doesn’t give students a high-quality education. Instead, it takes time away from students learning how to read or write critically and authentically.
In addition, using member dues to lobby for left-wing causes or endorse political campaigns doesn’t benefit teachers. Staunchly opposing education choice such as education savings accounts ultimately hinders parents’ freedom to make the right decisions concerning their children’s education.
Unions also have a track record for keeping kids out of the classroom. Oftentimes, when school strikes are encouraged by the unions, students and families are the ones who pay the price.
The Defense of Freedom Institute has tracked the impacts of teacher union strikes since 2010 and found that there have been 858,517 employees on strike, 140 strikes in 30 states and the District of Columbia, and 672 days of lost instruction (the equivalent of nearly four school years). For families already struggling with learning loss, these disruptions are not abstract labor disputes; they are lost opportunities that cannot be recovered.
These are just a few examples of how teachers’ unions have strayed away. This is a problem. The good news is that teachers recognize this, and they’re leaving in large swaths.
Teachers’ unions like the AFT have seen a steady decline in membership since the landmark 2018 case Janus v. AFSCME. This case held that public-sector unions cannot mandate that non-members pay union dues, meaning teachers who choose not to join also cannot be charged dues or agency fees.
Janus did not weaken unions by fiat; it simply gave teachers the option to opt out, revealing how many no longer felt represented. Prior to the 2018 decision, Heritage Foundation analysts wrote that “these agency fees had allowed the unions to amass a considerable war chest over the decades.”
Thankfully, in their stead, alternative options for educators have appeared. A prominent alternative is the Teacher Freedom Alliance, which is free for teachers to join and offers liability insurance for members. This insurance protects educators from risks they may encounter in the industry.
Since its launch a year ago, over 12,000 educators have joined the Teacher Freedom Alliance. Why? The organization’s mission to “develop free, moral, and upright American citizens” is attracting educators. Its focus on quality curricula and better instruction is free of ideological interference and emphasizes teaching the basics: reading, writing, and arithmetic.
If teachers continue leaving these unions in large enough waves, teachers’ unions like the AFT may be forced to focus less on promoting political agendas or risk closing up shop. This is good news for students, parents, and the profession itself.
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