California taxpayers are spending billions of dollars a year on benefits available to illegal immigrants and their families, according to a new investigation from Christopher Rufo and his City Journal colleagues.
Rufo, Kenneth Schrupp and Austen Hufford visited four public-services offices across Southern California to see firsthand what benefits were available. Their report describes what they call a “shadow welfare system” built largely with state and local dollars.
The investigation says California taxpayers spent at least $11 billion subsidizing illegal immigrants in the last fiscal year, with programs covering everything from health care and cash assistance to tax credits and subsidized auto insurance. Some benefits go directly to eligible noncitizens; others are available to U.S.-born children in mixed-status families.
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The biggest ticket item is health care.
California expanded full-scope Medi-Cal coverage regardless of immigration status, enrolling roughly 1.7 million people. Rufo’s report cites the state Legislative Analyst’s Office estimating the expansion now costs California about $10 billion annually — more than twice earlier projections.
The reporters also went inside welfare offices.
In Glendale, they questioned a worker about the Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants, or CAPI, a state-funded program for certain elderly or disabled noncitizens. In Los Angeles, another worker explained how an undocumented parent can receive CalWORKs assistance on behalf of a U.S.-citizen child even when the parent is not personally eligible.
And California is expanding some benefits further.
A 2022 law is scheduled to extend state-funded food assistance beginning next October to eligible Californians 55 and older regardless of immigration status. The Legislative Analyst’s Office has estimated that expansion could eventually cost up to $400 million annually.
Watch the clip and check out the full report below:
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
