Illegal Families Given $100k: Report Reveals 'Shadow Welfare System' This State Uses to Fund Illegals
While California is already notorious for having a massive welfare state — accompanied by massive amounts of welfare fraud — a new report revealed the extent to which California handouts bankroll illegal aliens.
The report from City Journal fellow Christopher Rufo, joined by Kenneth Schrupp and Austen Hufford, even described the programs as a “shadow welfare system.”
Among other benefits, foreigners can receive “health care, rental assistance, college grants, tax credits, low-cost car insurance, and even smartphones on the taxpayers’ dime,” the report said.
The team from the City Journal visited four welfare offices in California — where employees admitted that illegal aliens can receive the benefits, or accept benefits on behalf of their children.
That spending amounted to $11 billion of subsidies for illegal aliens in the previous fiscal year alone.
“If you were born here and the child was born here, you get money for two,” a welfare officer in Los Angeles said of CalWORKS, which provides short-term cash assistance to families.
EXCLUSIVE: California has created a shadow welfare system for illegal aliens. Free housing, cash, healthcare, food, phones, college tuition, even car insurance—costing taxpayers more than $10 billion per year.
We went inside the system and exposed it all. pic.twitter.com/oJh0mpstzN
— Christopher Rufo (@christopherrufo) September 23, 2026
“Because she is not and the child is, she only gets money for the child, and not for her.”
According to the City Journal, a family with two parents who are illegal aliens, two children born in the United States, and one grandparent in the country illegally can rake in $100,000 of welfare per year.
Even though “federal law generally prohibits states from using federal dollars to serve illegal aliens,” the City Journal noted that “to dodge those restrictions, California created parallel state- and locally funded programs that allowed the state to extend benefits to illegal immigrants.”
For instance, while Medicaid funds cannot provide wraparound coverage for illegal aliens, California used “a state-funding ‘bucket’ within its Medi-Cal program to extend ‘full-scope’ coverage to illegal aliens.”
“The expansions enrolled some 1.7 million people, costing the state an estimated $10 billion annually — more than twice what the state legislative analyst originally projected,” the report added.
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, a likely presidential contender in the 2028 election cycle, has signed expansions of welfare programs for illegal aliens.
The report noted that one in four California residents are foreign-born — and suggested that generous benefits for foreigners may help to explain the trend.
Democratic states have been criticized not only for refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, but also for offering benefits to illegal aliens that encourage more illegal entries.
“This model — permissive rules and large loopholes — costs the state billions per year,” the report added.
“As benefits and eligibility continue to expand, that figure will only increase in the years ahead.”
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