by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News September 24, 2026

The sanctuary state of California has built a “shadow welfare system” for illegal aliens, according to a journalist’s investigation.

State-funded programs and workarounds provide everything from healthcare and cash to food, housing, tuition, phones, and other taxpayer-funded perks, Christopher Rufo and his team of investigators discovered.

The investigators personally went into public-service offices in the state and asked pointed questions on what benefits are being offered to illegals.

In the last fiscal year alone, Rufo says California spent at least $11 billion subsidizing illegals.

Rufo’s team found programs that cater to certain illegals directly, while others hand out benefits through their U.S.-born children.

In some cases, California created state-funded versions of programs because federal law limits the use of federal money for people without legal status.

Rufo and his team were amazed at how some of these benefits actually reach the illegals. Even in California, you can’t just walk into an office and say, “Hey, I’m illegal. Where’s my free stuff!?”

At offices in Glendale and Los Angeles, Rufo’s investigators asked about programs available to immigrants and families with “mixed” immigration status.

One worker talked about CAPI, California’s cash-assistance program for qualifying elderly or disabled illegals, and another explained how CalWORKs benefits can flow through an eligible US-born child even when the parent isn’t eligible.

Rufo reported in The City Journal:

We visited four public-services offices in Southern California, each of which admitted that illegal aliens can enroll in public-welfare programs or receive benefits on their children’s behalf. In total, California taxpayers spent at least $11 billion subsidizing illegal immigrants in the last fiscal year. The state’s shadow welfare system, it seems, shows no signs of slowing down.

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.

“If you were born here and the child was born here, you get money for two,” the officer said of CalWORKs, the state’s version of the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. “Because she is not and the child is, she only gets money for the child, and not for her.”

The programs have a slew of rules and funding streams, making it difficult for any observer to see what’s going on, the report said.

Medi-Cal is one of the biggest examples of how California built around some of the federal restrictions.

And PRUCOL classification and child-only CalWORKs cases are other ways illegals can grab benefits.

The City Journal report noted:

Federal law generally prohibits states from using federal dollars to serve illegal aliens. To dodge those restrictions, California created parallel state- and locally funded programs that allowed the state to extend benefits to illegal immigrants. Perhaps as a result, more than one in four California residents today is foreign-born.

Medicaid is a good example. Federal law prohibits states from using federal dollars to provide wraparound coverage to illegal immigrants. So, 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.

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.

Another way that California shuffles cash to illegal immigrants is through those aliens’ children. CalWORKs allows illegal-immigrant parents to receive benefits on behalf of their U.S.-born kids. BenefitsCal, the state’s welfare clearinghouse, even tells applicants that the program will accept a “statement” that the applicant “intend[s] to file or [is] taking steps to become federally eligible” to qualify for the program.

This model—permissive rules and large loopholes—costs the state billions per year. As benefits and eligibility continue to expand, that figure will only increase in the years ahead.

While Washington can restrict federal benefits to illegals, state governments still decide to spend state tax dollars on their own programs.

Revolver News noted: “Rufo’s investigation should have every single American citizen infuriated, because what happens in California doesn’t stay in California. These moochers will spread out all over the country.

“And something needs to be done about this, because if federal immigration policy says one thing while state benefit systems create completely different incentives, which message is actually reaching the illegals who are ready and willing to sneak over?”

Freedom Rocks! Until It Is Gone

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