California Gets 80% of All Federal Cash for Illegal Immigrant Families

In this ZeroHedge article, Tyler Durden summarizes an Epoch Times report on newly published federal data showing California receives the overwhelming majority of federal TANF cash assistance tied to households headed by illegal immigrant parents.

• The report says California accounted for more than 80% of nationwide TANF cash assistance in 2024 for households where qualifying children received aid while living with parents illegally present in the U.S.
• The article states that $759 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families cash assistance went nationwide to these “child-only” cases in 2024.
• California reportedly received about $618 million of that total, representing roughly 81% of national spending on these cases.
• The aid is formally paid on behalf of eligible children, while the parent is excluded from direct federal benefit eligibility because of immigration status.
• According to the report, these households are not subject to the same TANF work requirements or 60-month lifetime benefit limit that apply to many low-income American families.
• Nationally, about 85,000 households were identified in this category in 2024, with California accounting for nearly 60,000 of them.
• The article says the average monthly benefit in California for these households rose from an estimated $408 in 2013 to $875 in 2024.
• New York, Massachusetts, and Washington were listed as the next-largest states, but none came close to California’s scale or spending level.
• The report estimates that from 2001 through 2024, the U.S. spent about $18.3 billion in TANF cash assistance on these cases.

Read the full story: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/california-gets-80-all-federal-cash-illegal-immigrant-families-report