How California taxpayers reward illegal immigration

California has decided that being in the country illegally should not stand in the way of getting help from California taxpayers to pay for college.

That should stop you cold.

Illegal immigrants are barred from receiving federal student aid. Democrats in Sacramento looked at that restriction and essentially said, “No problem. We’ll create our own system.”

And they did.

California now gives illegal immigrants access to taxpayer-funded grants, tuition assistance, fee waivers and even state-backed student loans.

This is not compassion. It is a deliberate policy of rewarding illegal immigration.

A sovereign country has the right to decide who may enter and who may stay. Millions of people around the world respect that process. They apply, pay the fees and wait. 

Sometimes for years.

They follow the law.

Illegal immigration, by definition, does not.

Yet California politicians have spent years trying to make that distinction matter less.

Consider higher education.

The California Dream Act Application allows illegal immigrants and other qualifying noncitizens to apply for state financial aid. They may qualify for Cal Grants, university grants, community-college fee waivers and other assistance.

Some of that aid pays tuition. Some can help cover rent, food, transportation and books.

California even created a Dream Loan program because illegal immigrants cannot receive federal student loans.

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At the University of California alone, undocumented AB 540 students received $30 million in Cal Grants and another $49 million in UC-funded need-based aid in 2022-23.

That is $79 million in just two categories of assistance at one university system.

And this has been going on for a quarter-century.

In 2001, California enacted AB 540, allowing qualifying illegal immigrants to pay in-state rather than nonresident tuition. The California Dream Act later opened taxpayer-funded financial aid to them. When federal student loans remained unavailable, Democrats in Sacramento created Dream Loans.

Over time, Democrats in Sacramento have made being here illegally less of an obstacle to receiving benefits that come with being here legally.

Meanwhile, California families are struggling to pay for their own children’s college educations.

Parents take out loans and drain savings. Students work. Families steer their children toward less expensive schools or tell them the college they wanted simply costs too much.

These families live here legally, pay taxes and follow the rules.

Then Democrats in Sacramento take some of that tax money and use it to help finance college for people who are not legally entitled to remain in the United States.

Only California politicians could call that fairness.

It is particularly perverse for immigrants who followed the law.

People wait years for visas and green cards. They navigate a complicated immigration system and abide by its restrictions because they want to come to America legally.

What does California tell them when legal status increasingly counts for so little?

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office defends the policy by pointing out that illegal-immigrant students do not receive more aid than citizens.

But that misses the point.

There is a moral distinction here, too.

Equal treatment is the problem.

Someone who is in the country illegally should not have the same claim on California taxpayers as someone who is here legally.

The question isn’t whether an illegal immigrant receives a larger grant than an American citizen. It’s why that person is receiving taxpayer-funded college assistance at all.

Citizenship and legal residency ought to count for something. Following the law ought to count for something, too.

California politicians have worked for years to erase the practical distinction between legal and illegal immigration.

This was not an accident. It was a policy agenda.

Emergency medical care is one thing. Taxpayer-subsidized college tuition is another. A civilized society can treat someone in an emergency without deciding taxpayers should also subsidize that person’s college education.

Compassion does not require government to provide every public benefit to every person who enters or remains in this country illegally.

Nor is opposing those benefits anti-immigrant.

Legal immigration and illegal immigration are not the same thing.

One follows the law. The other does not.

California cannot secure the southern border. That responsibility belongs to Washington.

But California absolutely controls whether it rewards illegal immigration once people get here.

Democrats in Sacramento have spent years making their choice clear.

They have made illegal immigration easier to live with and less costly to those who do it.

And California taxpayers are footing the bill.

Jon Fleischman, a longtime strategist in California politics, writes at SoDoesItMatter.com