On charges that it was unlawfully giving federal funds to people who weren’t eligible for Social Security, the Trump administration opened an inquiry into a California state-level program that pays monthly cash benefits to elderly, blind, and disabled non-citizens.
In order to ascertain whether federal funds were disbursed to undocumented immigrants who were not eligible, the Department of Homeland Security announced the investigation Monday in a statement stating that it was seeking all documents from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services, which oversees California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants.
Records of the program dating back to January 2021, when former President Joe Biden took office, will be examined by the investigation.
In the statement, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem added, “California’s radical left politicians prioritize illegal aliens over our own citizens, including by giving illegal aliens access to cash benefits.”
“The Trump administration is working together to identify abuse and exploitation of public benefits and make sure those in this country illegally are not receiving federal benefits or other financial incentives to stay illegally.”
The DHS stated that it is especially investigating whether the Social Security Administration was paying Supplemental Security Income to unauthorized immigrants.
Established in the 1990s, California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants offers monthly cash benefits to certain immigrants who are not eligible for SSI because of their immigration status.
The program is fully state financed, according to its website. Applicants must be residents of California, ineligible for SSI, 65 years of age or older, blind, or disabled in order to qualify.
The SEIU California union swiftly condemned the inquiry, claiming that the Trump administration was attacking the state’s safety net through “bullying” tactics.
“Donald Trump’s campaign to instill fear in immigrant communities will meet resolute opposition here in California,” the union’s president, David Huerta, stated.
The federal government, according to Huerta, has no justification for its “legal bullying” and no authority to dictate to California how to spend its public monies to combat poverty.
“The sole purpose of this sham ‘investigation’ is clear: intimidation of people seeking safety and of all those who provide them with needed support,” Huerta stated.
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“We will not be intimidated, and we will not back down.”
About 750,000 nurses, healthcare professionals, janitors, social workers, security guards, and employees of cities, counties, and states are represented by SEIU California, a nonpartisan organization.
In addition to using divisive and disparaging language to disseminate misleading information and accusations about migrants and crime, President Donald Trump ran on a platform of cracking down on immigration and carrying out the greatest deportation in American history.
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He has focused the federal government on immigration since taking office in January by using his executive authority.
He issued an executive order a month ago, instructing Noem and other cabinet members to make sure illegal immigrants do not get Social Security payments and to pursue civil and criminal charges against governments that do not stop non-citizens from receiving them.
