One of the biggest whoppers Democrats peddled during the Schumer Shutdown was the claim that they weren’t fighting for taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegals. They repeated it endlessly, hoping that if they said it loudly enough and often enough, Americans would forget what their actual demands were.
“Federal law prohibits the use of Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Affordable Care Act to provide health insurance in any way, shape, or form to undocumented immigrants—period, full stop. Democrats aren’t trying to change that,” Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) proclaimed at the time.
But the truth was obvious to anyone paying attention: Democrats dug in specifically because they wanted benefits for people who broke our laws, even if it meant grinding the government to a halt and holding the entire country hostage to their open-border ideology.
They lied about their motives then, just like they lie about the border now. Because admitting the truth — that they prioritize illegal immigrants over American taxpayers — would expose their entire agenda for what it is.
Fast-forward to December, and the mask finally slips. California Gov. Gavin Newsom — the Democrats’ poster boy for elite hypocrisy — openly bragged that his state was the first in the nation to shovel billions in taxpayer money into healthcare for illegal immigrants.
Proud of it.
After months of Democrats insisting during the Schumer Shutdown that they weren’t demanding taxpayer-funded benefits for illegals, Newsom comes strolling in like it’s an achievement to prioritize non-citizens over Californians who are being crushed by taxes, homelessness, crime, and a collapsing healthcare system:
Back in March, we learned how California was bankrolling its Medi-Cal-for-illegals scheme — and it wasn’t through some magical pot of state money. The Golden State was exploiting a loophole in Medicaid to siphon federal dollars into its program, effectively forcing taxpayers in every other state to subsidize Gavin Newsom’s sanctuary-state fantasy:
California is funneling billions of federal taxpayer dollars into paying for illegal immigrants’ healthcare, a new study claims.
“They are exploiting an existing loophole within law,” Paul Winfree, president and CEO of the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC), told Fox News Digital.
“States can do these provider taxes to funnel money back to the state, that they are then using to pay for, to put illegal immigrants on Medicaid. That’s quite literally what’s going on.”
Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, is supposed to serve legal California residents and is funded with a mix of state and federal money. But Newsom’s administration found a way to twist the rules so that illegal immigrants could be covered too — and Washington would pick up a chunk of the tab.
In other words, Californians weren’t just paying for it. You were paying for it. Everyone was paying for it.
An HHS Inspector General Report from May 2024 found that “California Improperly Claimed $52.7 Million in Federal Medicaid Reimbursement for Capitation Payments Made on Behalf of Noncitizens With Unsatisfactory Immigration Status.” The money was allegedly paid back to the feds the next month, but the gist of the Democratic argument – ‘Illegal immigrants don’t get federally funded healthcare’ – is a lie. And Newsom just proved it.
