{"id":333015,"date":"2026-05-26T16:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/333015\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T16:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:04:09","slug":"california-is-giving-free-solar-panels-to-illegal-aliens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/333015\/","title":{"rendered":"California Is Giving Free Solar Panels to Illegal Aliens"},"content":{"rendered":"

California is spending millions of dollars on a program that provides free<\/a> solar panels<\/a>, refrigerators<\/a>, and windows<\/a> to \u201clow-income\u201d farmworkers, including illegal immigrants.<\/p>\n

The initiative, called the Farmworker Housing Component of the Low-Income Weatherization Program, is part<\/a> of California\u2019s sprawling, multibillion<\/a>-dollar \u201ccap-and-trade\u201d system, which taxes<\/a> carbon producers and redistributes approximately $3 billion<\/a> per year<\/a> to energy programs and left-wing social<\/a> causes<\/a>\u2014all under the banner of fighting<\/a> \u201cclimate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Since 2019<\/a>, California\u2019s government has earmarked $49 million<\/a> for the farmworker program, which operates through an opaque web that includes a government agency, nonprofit providers, and private contractors. California\u2019s Department of Community Services and Development selected<\/a> La Cooperativa Campesina de California, a nonprofit that serves<\/a> farmworkers, to administer<\/a> the program. La Cooperativa, in turn, has partnered<\/a> with a for-profit, \u201cminority owned\u201d company<\/a>, MAROMA Energy Services, to help run<\/a> the program. Contractors do the work of installing solar panels and other appliances.<\/p>\n

These organizations have heavily advertised<\/a> the program to California\u2019s nearly 900,000 agricultural workers<\/a>, half<\/a> to three-quarters<\/a> of whom are illegal immigrants. In its official documentation, California\u2019s Department of Community Services and Development acknowledges<\/a> that non-citizens are eligible for the program and that they even accept identification from foreign governments.<\/p>\n

In a Spanish-language radio broadcast, Natalie Velores, a program manager for MAROMA, confirmed<\/a> that participants do not need \u201clegal status\u201d in the United States and can use a matr\u00eccula consular, a common form of identification that the Mexican consulate provides<\/a> to migrants who have crossed the border, to apply.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe only require an ID,\u201d Velores said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t need to be from this state, or [the] United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beneficiaries work hard to loop laborers into the system. A contractor for John Harrison Contracting\u2014a California-based \u201cMinority Business Enterprise<\/a>\u201d and Farmworker Housing Component subcontractor\u2014would drive \u201chundreds of miles a day\u201d across Southern California, trying to persuade farmworkers to sign up for the program, Inside Climate News previously reported<\/a>. One challenge was to convince workers that the program was not a scam. The other challenge, after the Trump administration increased ICE raids, was finding potential clients, many of whom \u201cstopped showing up to job sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

We spoke with MAROMA customer service representative \u00c1ngel Quintanilla, who confirmed that the company had provided solar panels for illegal immigrants. \u201cYou don\u2019t need to have documentation,\u201d Quintanilla said. \u201cThey ask for their pay stub and a form of their income and, of course, the gas and the electricity bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite a $49 million budget and nearly seven years of operation, the farmworker \u201cweatherization\u201d program has only provided services to about 2,000 families. That means the State of California has allocated roughly $23,000 per household for its program to provide free solar panels, refrigerators, and other services\u2014a number that raises serious concerns about financial accountability.<\/p>\n

One problem: the same man, Mauricio Blanco, seems to be connected to entities at multiple stages in the flow of funds. Blanco worked<\/a> as a project manager for La Cooperativa Campesina de California, which has been awarded<\/a> at least $10.7 million by the state; is currently listed as an executive<\/a> of MAROMA Energy Services, which has been granted nearly $34 million from La Cooperativa for \u201cweatherization\u201d services since 2017; and is CEO<\/a> of John Harrison Contracting, a firm that appears to have done much of the solar installation work<\/a>. He acknowledged but did not address our request for comment.<\/p>\n

We sent the California Department of Community Services an extensive list of questions for this story. A spokesman told us that the Farmworker Housing Component helps \u201cvulnerable and disadvantaged communities\u201d keep their homes temperate year-round, has saved the equivalent of more than 20,000 metric tons of carbon, and \u201ccontributes to the state\u2019s climate investment and priority population goals.\u201d He did not deny that the program had funded services for illegal immigrants.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s political leaders initially pitched the cap-and-trade program, and initiatives like low-income farmworker weatherization, as a way to fight \u201cclimate change.\u201d In reality, however, these programs seem designed to do something else: keep the cash flowing through the state\u2019s web of government agencies, nonprofit providers, and private contractors. Installing solar panels on some 2,000 homes will do almost nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions\u2014but it will line the pockets of a few connected people who know to repeat the platitudes and pull the levers of power.<\/p>\n

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City Journal is a publication of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (MI), a leading free-market think tank. Are you interested in supporting the magazine? As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, donations in support of MI and City Journal are fully tax-deductible as provided by law (EIN #13-2912529).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California is spending millions of dollars on a program that provides free solar panels, refrigerators, and windows to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-333015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}