Americans everywhere are stretching every dollar. They’re working longer hours, watching grocery receipts spiral upward, and quietly wondering how the math is supposed to work anymore. The social contract between citizen and government has always been straightforward: you pay in, and the system serves you. Your roads. Your schools. Your children’s shot at something better.

So what happens when a state government decides its own citizens aren’t really the priority? What happens when elected officials direct billions in tax revenue toward benefits for residents without lawful immigration status, alongside programs serving citizens and other eligible residents? And then have the audacity to boast about it?

From The Post Millennial:

The California state government has built up a shadow welfare system for illegal immigrants, devoting at least $11 billion in the last fiscal year alone to subsidize and provide benefits to those in the US who have no legal right to be here, according to a report from City Journal.

In total, California spends around $180 billion annually on food, healthcare programs, and other welfare benefits for residents. However, a good share of this is going to help illegal immigrants obtain healthcare, rental assistance, grants for college, smartphones, car insurance, and other services, all funded by the taxpayer.

City Journal estimated at least $11 billion in spending in one fiscal year. That is the report’s estimate of benefit and service costs, not a finding that the state handed $11 billion in cash to undocumented individuals. In our view, spending on that scale deserves close taxpayer scrutiny.

The shadow welfare machine

The sheer scope of California’s parallel benefits apparatus should alarm every American who files a tax return. The report discusses programs including CAPI, Medi-Cal, CalWORKs, car insurance, college assistance, tax credits, and phone service. Eligibility differs by program. Some benefits serve qualifying noncitizens; others go to eligible U.S.-citizen children in mixed-status households. They should not be treated as one uniformly available package for undocumented adults.

A welfare officer in Glendale spelled it out without hesitation: “If you are a citizen, you cannot get CAPI. I don’t care about legal or not. Not being a citizen is the key.” That quotation is not a complete description of eligibility. CAPI is state-funded assistance for certain aged, blind, or disabled noncitizens who are ineligible for SSI/SSP because of immigration status. Applicants must meet immigration-status, income, resource, residency, and other requirements; noncitizenship alone is not enough. Noncitizens, including undocumented residents, also pay taxes. CAPI’s design is distinct from SSI/SSP eligibility for citizens.

Dig into the details and it only gets more obscene. Roughly 1.7 million illegal immigrants are now enrolled in Medi-Cal alone, costing an estimated $10 billion annually – more than double what state analysts originally projected. City Journal also estimated that a hypothetical five-person mixed-status household could receive services and benefits valued at more than $100,000 annually. That example includes two U.S.-citizen children, depends on program eligibility, and counts the estimated value of services such as healthcare. It is not a $100,000 cash payment to undocumented adults or a like-for-like comparison with household earnings.

Engineered by design

Federal law generally restricts many benefits for undocumented residents, but it contains exceptions for specified services. It also allows states to enact laws affirmatively authorizing certain state-funded benefits. A state-funded program does not, by itself, demonstrate unlawful circumvention of federal restrictions.

California has chosen to fund benefits beyond those generally available under federal programs. We disagree with some of those spending choices, but policy disagreement is distinct from a finding that the programs violate federal law. Governor Gavin Newsom has supported expansions. In 2025, he signed legislation stripping the requirement for applicants to produce a Social Security number when applying for free smartphones and cell service through the California LifeLine program. His wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, actively promoted the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit with cheerful materials assuring applicants that having no Social Security number was “no problem.” Casual, breezy – as if citizenship were a minor clerical detail.

Investigators found cell phone providers stationed inside welfare offices, pitching LifeLine plans and accepting Mexican consular identification cards for enrollment. This wasn’t some bureaucratic oversight. This was deliberate infrastructure.

A debt owed to every American taxpayer

Eleven billion dollars represents choices. That money could have funded veterans’ care. It could have repaired aging bridges and highways. It could have hired officers for understaffed police departments or equipped fire stations struggling with budget cuts. California’s leaders looked at all of those needs and chose illegal immigrants instead.

And the tab keeps growing. The planned food-assistance expansion would cover otherwise income-eligible residents age 55 and older regardless of immigration status. CDSS identifies October 1, 2027 as the implementation date. Legislative analysts estimated ongoing costs of $140 million to $400 million at full ramp-up in 2029–30, rather than a fixed $400 million annual charge beginning at launch. California already imposes the highest tax rates in the nation. Its working residents are burning through savings and sinking deeper into financial hardship. Meanwhile, Sacramento celebrates its own generosity with other people’s earnings.

We believe the reported spending raises serious questions about California’s priorities. Taxpayers can demand a full accounting of the programs, their funding sources, and the benefits provided. That is an argument about policy and accountability, not a finding that all of the spending was unlawful or that a legally established debt must be repaid.

Citizenship and immigration status affect eligibility differently across these programs. Citizens and noncitizens both contribute tax revenue. Our argument is that California should more carefully justify how that revenue is spent.

Key Takeaways

• City Journal estimated at least $11 billion in annual spending on benefits and services associated with undocumented residents; program eligibility and funding sources differ.
• Federal law allows specified state-funded benefits and contains exceptions; the existence of these programs does not itself establish a violation.
• The cited $100,000 household example includes U.S.-citizen children and estimated service values, not that amount in cash paid to undocumented adults.
• American taxpayers deserve full repayment and the dismantling of California’s shadow welfare system.

Sources: The Post Millennial, City Journal

Additional sources: CDSS: CAPI eligibility; 8 U.S.C. § 1621; CDSS: CFAP expansion; Legislative Analyst’s Office: food-assistance estimates.