The pro-illegal immigration Latino Caucus has slammed California Governor Gavin Newsom for halting free healthcare for newly arrived illegals to plug a gaping hole in his budget.
In mid-April 2025, Gov. Newsom borrowed $2.8 billion to bail out the Medicaid-like Medi-Cal healthcare program that covers illegal immigrants. In March 2025, Newsom had borrowed another $3.4 billion to reduce the $6.2 billion deficit, suggesting that the state was struggling to keep the program afloat.
“Medi-Cal is officially BROKE because of illegal immigrant healthcare. The Dept. of Finance just requested a $3.4 billion loan to meet its budget shortfall for just this year,” tweeted Bill Essayli, the United States Attorney for the Central District of California.
California also faced a potential $3.5 billion fine for continuing to provide free healthcare for illegal immigrants.
Subsequently, Gov. Newsom announced plans to save $5 billion by barring new illegal immigrants 19 years and above from enrolling in the Medi-Cal program.
However, that decision was not well received by Latino leaders who slammed Newsom for reneging on his promise to protect “vulnerable” illegal immigrants by offering them free healthcare on the American taxpayers’ dime. “Latino legislators criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget cuts to Medi-Cal Monday afternoon, saying the plan to freeze enrollment and charge premiums for those adult immigrants without documentation already enrolled was a betrayal of California’s promise to protect the vulnerable,” The Los Angeles Times reported.
“State Senator María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) said the plan to charge adult undocumented immigrants $100 per month for Medi-Cal was a form of redlining, and Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Alameda) said she doubted the two-tiered system was constitutional.”
Ironically, the lawmakers who are elected by American voters are not fighting to ensure vulnerable legal citizens receive services they paid for, since California limited Medi-Cal coverage for many vulnerable citizens to enrol more illegal aliens. When California unveiled the program, it lauded it as one of the first in the country. It even suggested that other states or even the federal government had no excuse for failing to provide free healthcare for everybody, including illegal aliens.
“With these new investments, California will become the first state to achieve universal access to health care coverage,” he said.
“We’re investing California’s historic surplus to accomplish transformative changes we’ve long dreamed of — including this historic Medi-Cal expansion to ensure thousands of older undocumented Californians, many of whom have been serving on the front lines of the pandemic, can access critical health care services,” he added.
Nonetheless, the program has received widespread criticism from California Republican lawmakers, who questioned the sustainability of the program.
“Wait times are growing. Democrats have made their choice: legal residents come second. We must stop new enrollments of illegal immigrants and rein in this unsustainable program before it collapses entirely,” tweeted California Republican state Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones.
