(The Center Square) – The federal government has allocated $159 million in FEMA funding to “provide humanitarian services to noncitizen migrants” in California since 2023, according to federal grants reviewed by The Center Square.
California has been a sanctuary state since 2017, and recently enacted a new law allowing individuals convicted of crimes that could impact immigration proceedings to petition for resentencing. The state has an estimated 1.9 million illegal immigrants, according to Pew.
Given president-elect Donald Trump’s opposition to funding services for undocumented immigrants, and California’s limited fiscal capacity, it’s unclear if these programs will persist.
“Republicans have been warning for years that California can’t afford these taxpayer-funded giveaways to illegal immigrants,” said California Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, to The Center Square. “Democrats have a choice to make: either keep encouraging illegal immigration with these handouts or give our citizens the services they need. How they respond will say a lot about their priorities.”
California recently provided $4 billion per year in funding to extend taxpayer-funded healthcare to an additional 700,000 undocumented immigrants; scaling those costs up to the 1.9 million estimated total in California results in rough total costs of $11 billion per year. With the state having cut, delayed, or shifted $47 billion to balance the budget this year, California may one day soon have to choose between cutting services or raising taxes.
Meanwhile, the City of Los Angeles, which received $22 million from FEMA for migrant services in 2024, is expediting a sanctuary city ordinance that would bar city staff from inquiring about immigration status or cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
“Especially in the face of growing threats to the immigrant communities here in Los Angeles, I stand with the people of this city,” said Mayor Karen Bass in a statement on the draft ordinance. “This moment demands urgency. Immigrant protections make our communities stronger and our city better.”
Los Angeles is currently “broke” and taking out a $80 million loan to cover lawsuit payments, suggesting it may not be able to afford to spend another $22 million on migrant services on its own.
In 2023 and 2024, FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program issued $364 million and $641 million respectively in federal grants to “non-federal entities that provide humanitarian services to noncitizen migrants.”
The Center Square has reported U.S. Customs and Border Patrol nearly 14 million individuals have entered the country illegally since the start of the Biden administration in 2021, with many estimating the number could be much higher. Pew estimates 10.2 million illegal immigrants were in the country in 2020, and that the number had only increased to 11 million through 2022, suggesting there may be a major disconnect between CBP data and many media reports.
In 2023, California organizations received $48 million in SSP grants, $35 million of which went to Catholic Charities of the Diocese of San Diego, and $13 million of which went to Riverside County.
In 2024, California organizations received $111 million in SSP grants, $41 million of which went to Catholic Charities of the Diocese of San Diego, $22 million of which went to Jewish Family Service San Diego, $22 million of which went to the City of Los Angeles, $20 million of which went to San Diego County, and $6 million of which went to Riverside County.
The marked increase in SSP funding for 2024 over 2023 could relate to the increase from 514,000 illegal border crossers into California in 2023 to an expected 625,000 illegal border crossings into California for fiscal year 2024.
That’s all up from nearly 300,000 illegal crossings in 2022. Much of the recent increase in illegal border crossings into California since 2022 can be attributed to Texas’ border crackdown, which has resulted in a significant reduction in illegal crossings into the Lone Star State.
During the first Trump administration, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 54 into law, which prohibits “state and local law enforcement agencies … from using money or personnel to investigate, interrogate, detain, detect, or arrest persons for immigration enforcement purposes.”
State and local law enforcement can still participate in joint law enforcement task forces, but must report detainee transfers to immigration authorities, and grant written consent for any interview between individuals in custody and federal immigration authorities.
The mayor of Newport Beach, an upscale Southern California beach town in Orange County, took to social media to announce that the U.S. Coast Guard had intercepted a boat carrying 21 illegal immigrants into Newport’s harbor earlier this week, including one Russian and two Uzbekistanis, and the issues caused by SB 54 in detaining criminal migrants.
“Clearly folks traveling from Uzbekistan through Mexico to enter our country illegally on a boat off the Orange County coast is – or at least should be – out of the ordinary,” said Mayor Will O’Neill on Instagram. “It was key that the USCG stopped the boat because, as part of the Federal government, they could cooperate with Customs and Border Patrol. Whereas our local police or the OC Sheriffs that patrol our Harbor are prohibited from doing so by a state law called SB54, otherwise known as California’s Sanctuary State policy.”
O’Neill then explained how SB 54 recently prevented Orange County from notifying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the release of 1,015 inmates with ICE detainers. After those individuals were released, 238 were rearrested within Orange County, including individuals charged with “assault and battery, rape, and robbery.”
As covered earlier this year by The Center Square, serial criminals in California illegally are often released by local authorities before federal immigration authorities can take custody and deport them.
At the beginning of 2024, all undocumented immigrants in California became eligible for taxpayer-funded healthcare despite the state’s healthcare shortage. Months later, lawmakers proposed expanding the state’s existing taxpayer-funded deportation defense for nonviolent illegal immigrants to include those convicted of serious or violent felonies, and providing access to $150,000 zero-down, zero-payment home “loans” to illegal immigrants.
While the proposal for deportation defense for violent felons did not get out of committee, the homebuying program proposal made it all the way to the governor’s desk. California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto cited the program’s “finite funding,” which received no money this year and ran out of funding in 11 days last year, and the state’s budget situation.
This year, the state budget required the cutting, shifting, and deferral of spending by $47 billion.
Late last week, the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office issued a lengthy report on its independence from the governor’s office ahead of this week’s preliminary budget analysis. The timing and nature of the report could suggest the state’s fiscal picture may not be as rosy as the governor portrays — or needs to continue to current spending levels.
