DHS Probes California Aid Program for Elderly and Disabled Immigrants

Federal officials say that the Trump administration is looking into a California state program that gives monthly cash benefits to elderly, blind, and disabled non-citizens. The program is said to be illegally giving federal funds to people who weren’t qualified for Social Security.

The Department of Homeland Security announced the investigation Monday in a statement that it was looking for all documents from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services, which is in charge of California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants. This is to find out if federal funds were given to undocumented immigrants who were not eligible.

The review will look at records of the program from January 2021, when former President Joe Biden took office.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem also said in the statement, “California’s far-left politicians put illegal immigrants ahead of our own citizens, even by letting illegal immigrants get cash benefits.”

“The Trump administration is working with others to find people who abuse and take advantage of public benefits and make sure that people who are in the country illegally are not getting federal benefits or other money to stay here illegally.”

The DHS said it is looking into whether the Social Security Administration was giving Supplemental Security Income to people who were not supposed to be there.

California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants has been around since the 1990s and gives monthly cash benefits to some immigrants who are not qualified for SSI because of their immigration status.

The webpage for the program says that it is fully funded by the government. To be qualified, applicants must live in California, not be eligible for SSI, be at least 65 years old, blind, or disabled.

The SEIU California union quickly spoke out against the investigation, saying that the Trump administration was using “bullying” to hurt the state’s safety net.

The head of the union, David Huerta, said, “Donald Trump’s campaign to make immigrant communities afraid will meet strong opposition here in California.”

Huerta says that the federal government has no right to be “legally bullying” California and no power to tell California how to spend its public money to fight poverty.

“It is clear that this fake “investigation’s” only goal is to scare people who are looking for safety and those who help them,” Huerta said.

“You can’t scare us, and we’re not going to back down.”

SEIU California is a neutral group that speaks for about 750,000 nurses, healthcare workers, janitors, social workers, security guards, and city, county, and state employees.

In addition to using hurtful and offensive language to spread false claims and information about immigrants and crime, President Donald Trump ran on a platform of limiting immigration and executing the largest deportation in U.S. history.

Since he became president in January, he has used his executive power to focus the federal government on immigration.

A month ago, he signed an order telling Noem and other cabinet members to stop illegal immigrants from getting Social Security payments and to take legal action against states that don’t stop undocumented people from getting them.