More than $617 million in taxpayer-funded cash welfare flowed to California households headed by illegal immigrant parents last year — accounting for the lion’s share 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 and shared with The California Post, found that more than 85,000 households nationwide received cash assistance through so-called “child-only cases” in fiscal year 2024. Nearly 60,000 of those households were in California.
The cases involve welfare benefits that are officially issued on behalf of children because their parents are ineligible for assistance due to factors such as immigration status.
But federal officials blasted the arrangement as a “loophole” that funnels hard-earned taxpayer dollars into households headed by non-citizens.
“Although the benefit is formally paid on behalf of the child, it still supports a household that includes an immigration-status-ineligible parent,” the report said.
Under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, most recipients face work requirements and a 60-month lifetime limit on benefits. Child-only cases, however, are exempt from those rules.
“The result is a striking disparity: needy American families are held to TANF’s central work and time-limit rules, while households headed by immigration-status-ineligible parents can receive child-only cash assistance,” the report added.
California dominated the national totals.
The Golden State accounted for nearly 70% of all households receiving immigration-related child-only assistance and about 81% of total spending, with taxpayers shelling out roughly $617.5 million.
That spending represented about 16% of California’s overall TANF basic-assistance expenditures, as monthly benefits climbed to $875 during the fiscal year.
“No other state approached California’s combination of scale, concentration, and fiscal impact,” the report said.
In fact, the state with the next largest spending on immigration-related child-only cases was dwarfed by California.
New York spent just $47.5 million on around 7,600 households.
The HHS report called for increased scrutiny of the child-only welfare cases and their impact on federal and state budgets.
CalWORKS, which distributes TANF in the state, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
