California drives welfare payments to illegal immigrants: HHS
California paid over $617 million in welfare benefits to households headed by illegal immigrant parents in 2024, accounting for roughly 81 percent of such spending nationwide, according to a new federal report.
The report, published Wednesday by the federal Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families, found that over 85,000 households nationwide received cash assistance through so-called child-only cases in fiscal year 2024, as New York Post reports. Nearly 60,000 of those households were located in California alone.
These cases involve welfare benefits officially issued on behalf of children whose parents cannot qualify for assistance themselves due to immigration status and other factors.
Federal officials criticized the arrangement as a loophole that redirects taxpayer money to households led by non-citizens. The report noted that although the benefit is formally paid on behalf of the child, it nevertheless supports a household that includes a parent ineligible due to immigration status.
Work Requirements Waived for Illegal Immigrant Households
Under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, most recipients must meet work requirements and face a 60-month lifetime cap on benefits. Child-only cases, however, are exempt from both rules.
The report highlighted what it called a striking disparity: needy American families must comply with TANF’s core work and time-limit provisions, while households headed by immigration-status-ineligible parents can receive child-only cash assistance indefinitely without work obligations.
California Accounts for Over 80 Percent of National Spending
California’s dominance in the national figures was overwhelming. The Golden State accounted for nearly 70 percent of all households receiving immigration-related child-only assistance and approximately 81 percent of total spending, with taxpayers funding roughly $617.5 million.
That spending represented about 16 percent of California’s overall TANF basic-assistance expenditures, according to New York Post. Monthly benefits in the state climbed to $875 during the fiscal year.
The report stated that no other state approached California’s combination of scale, concentration, and fiscal impact.
The state with the next highest spending on immigration-related child-only cases was New York, which spent just $47.5 million on approximately 7,600 households—a fraction of California’s outlays.
Federal Call for Increased Scrutiny
The HHS report called for heightened scrutiny of child-only welfare cases and their impact on federal and state budgets.
CalWORKS, the state program that distributes TANF benefits in California, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
With information from New York Post
