California Gives Free Solar Panels to Illegal Aliens

The scheme, known as the Farmworker Housing Component of the Low-Income Weatherization Program, explicitly targets agricultural workers regardless of their immigration status, as Breitbart News reports.

Christopher Rufo and co-author Austen Hufford exposed how the initiative operates as part of California’s sprawling cap-and-trade system, which levies taxes on carbon producers and redistributes approximately $3 billion annually to energy programs and progressive social causes, all marketed under the guise of combating climate change.

The nonprofit organization La Cooperativa Campesina de California administers the program and has partnered with MAROMA Energy Services, a self-described minority-owned company, to contract out the solar panel installations.

The two organizations have aggressively promoted the program to California’s estimated 900,000 agricultural workers, of whom between half and three-quarters are illegal immigrants, according to the researchers.

Official documentation from California’s Department of Community Services and Development confirms that non-citizens qualify for the program and that foreign government-issued identification is accepted.

Natalie Velores, a program manager for MAROMA, stated in a Spanish-language radio broadcast that participants do not need legal status in the United States and may use a matrícula consular—identification commonly issued by the Mexican consulate to migrants who have crossed the border—to apply for the free solar systems.

Representatives from the participating companies conducted extensive outreach campaigns throughout farmworker communities across the state to inform residents about the program and how to access the free solar power systems.

Despite the massive expenditure, only approximately 2,000 families have received the free solar installations to date. This translates to roughly $23,000 per household allocated by the State of California for solar panels, refrigerators, and related services—a figure the researchers argue raises serious questions about financial accountability and oversight.

The investigation also uncovered that a politically connected activist appears to be profiting substantially from the program. Mauricio Blanco has served as a project manager for La Cooperativa Campesina de California, which has received at least $10.7 million in state funding. He is currently listed as an executive of MAROMA Energy Services, which has been granted nearly $34 million from La Cooperativa for weatherization services since 2017. Blanco also serves as CEO of John Harrison Contracting, a firm that appears to have performed much of the solar installation work.

Blanco’s network of companies has systematically redirected millions in state climate funding through these interconnected entities, creating what appears to be a lucrative arrangement for the politically connected operator.

With information from Breitbart News