{"id":356236,"date":"2026-06-11T13:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T13:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/356236\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T13:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T13:54:07","slug":"california-continues-to-lead-the-nation-in-welfare-checks-paid-to-illegal-alien-headed-households-american-enterprise-institute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/356236\/","title":{"rendered":"California Continues to Lead\u00a0the\u00a0Nation in Welfare\u00a0Checks Paid\u00a0to Illegal Alien-Headed Households | American Enterprise Institute"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new\u00a0US\u00a0Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0shows\u00a0California continues to lead the nation in paying welfare checks\u00a0under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program\u00a0to households headed by illegal aliens.\u00a0Titled\u00a0\u201cThe Prevalence of TANF Child-Only Cases Involving Immigration-Status-Ineligible Parents,\u201d the June 10 report\u00a0reviews\u00a0how\u00a0TANF\u00a0assistance\u00a0\u201cflows to households headed by ineligible parents, including illegal aliens\u201d\u00a0across the country.\u00a0The overwhelming majority of that assistance\u00a0reaches\u00a0households\u00a0headed by illegal aliens\u00a0in California, the report finds.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

The payments\u00a0are directed to\u00a0what are known as \u201cchild-only\u201d\u00a0households, in which children (who\u00a0in many cases\u00a0may be\u00a0citizens by virtue of being born in the\u00a0US) are eligible\u00a0for benefits\u00a0even though\u00a0their\u00a0illegal alien parents\u00a0are not. As I reviewed in\u00a0an\u00a0AEI report<\/a>\u00a0last year,\u00a0TANF, food stamps, and\u00a0even new Trump account\u00a0benefits could flow to such households.\u00a0As\u00a0one\u00a0immigrant\u00a0advocacy group\u00a0explained<\/a>\u00a0of California\u2019s food stamp program, called CalFresh: \u201cPeople who have children with U.S. citizenship or lawful status\u00a0may apply for CalFresh food assistance on\u00a0behalf of their children and do not need to provide any information about their own immigration status.\u201d\u00a0The\u00a0household\u2019s\u00a0benefits are then provided to the parent, despite his or her\u00a0individual\u00a0ineligibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Within the TANF program specifically, the\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0offers the following data\u00a0points:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Households headed by illegal aliens\u00a0and other \u201cimmigration-status-ineligible\u201d parents\u00a0constitute 10 percent of all TANF cases,\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn FY2024, child-only cases accounted for 40.4% of all TANF basic\u00a0assistance\u00a0households nationwide. Among child-only cases, 24.8% involved a parent who was excluded from the\u00a0assistance\u00a0unit because of citizenship or immigration status.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

Child-only cases\u00a0including\u00a0\u201cimmigration-status-ineligible parents\u201d reflect 10 percent of all TANF cash\u00a0assistance\u00a0cases\u00a0nationwide in FY 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

California is the \u201cprimary driver\u201d of these cases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn FY2024, California accounted for about 59,622 affected households, or roughly 70% of the national total.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

California is also a primary driver of spending on\u00a0these\u00a0cases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state\u2019s annual cash assistance associated with those households reached about $617.5 million, or about 81% of nationwide spending on these cases.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next-largest states were far smaller. New York ranked second at about 7,635 households and about $47.5 million in annual cash\u00a0assistance, followed by Massachusetts at about 3,777 households and about $27.3 million, and Washington at about 1,796 households and about $12.2 million.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSpending on child-only cases involving immigration-status-ineligible parents equaled about 15.8% of all FY2024 TANF basic assistance spending in California.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat concentration was accompanied by a sharp rise in benefit levels over time, as the average monthly benefit in California for child-only households with immigration-status-ineligible parents increased from an estimated $408 in FY2013 to $875 in FY2024, a rise of 114.5%.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo other state approached California\u2019s combination of scale, concentration, and fiscal impact.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The issue is not new.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom FY2001 through FY2024, these cases remained a persistent part of the TANF caseload and were associated with an estimated\u00a0$18.3 billion\u00a0in cumulative cash assistance nationwide.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe historical record therefore shows that this is not a minor byproduct of TANF, but a durable feature of the program\u2019s child-only case structure.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n

The number\u00a0of TANF\u00a0child-only cases headed by\u00a0\u201cimmigration-status-ineligible\u201d\u00a0parents peaked\u00a0at 221,203\u00a0in 2010;\u00a0in percentage terms\u00a0such\u00a0cases\u00a0peaked\u00a0subsequently\u00a0at 12.9 percent of\u00a0households receiving TANF\u00a0assistance\u00a0in 2016.\u00a0The report finds that\u00a0especially\u00a0the\u00a0number of these cases\u00a0has fallen\u00a0considerably\u00a0through\u00a0FY 2024, which ended\u00a0in September 2024. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Much has changed since then, including the transition to the second Trump administration and its significantly strengthened focus\u00a0on border security.\u00a0HHS has separately provided\u00a0additional\u00a0data about overall child-only cases\u00a0through\u00a0December 2025<\/a>. Those\u00a0data\u00a0indicate\u00a0that child-only cases continued\u00a0to fall through FY 2025 and the start of FY 2026. It is unclear whether,\u00a0and if\u00a0so\u00a0how much of, that decline may be attributable to\u00a0households headed\u00a0specifically\u00a0by illegal alien adults. \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile,\u00a0the continued existence\u2014and heavy concentration in California\u2014of these cases\u00a0remains\u00a0a challenge to those who\u00a0seek\u00a0to\u00a0end taxpayer benefits\u00a0for\u00a0illegal aliens.\u00a0As the\u00a0latest HHS\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0displays, especially in the Golden State,\u00a0hundreds of\u00a0millions of\u00a0taxpayer\u00a0dollars\u00a0continue to\u00a0flow each year\u00a0in the form of\u00a0welfare checks sent to households headed by illegal aliens. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new\u00a0US\u00a0Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)\u00a0report\u00a0shows\u00a0California continues to lead the nation in paying welfare checks\u00a0under the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,14,1747,14594],"class_list":["post-356236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-immigration","tag-tax","tag-welfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356236","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=356236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}