Trump administration investigates California’s benefits to immigrants. Critics say its claims are misleading

The Trump administration announced Monday that it has launched an investigation into California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants, a state program that provides monthly cash benefits to a small number of aged, blind, and disabled noncitizens who it claims are ineligible for Social Security benefits due to their immigration status.

The investigation began in Los Angeles, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles field office issuing a Title VIII subpoena to California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security said in a news release.

According to the department, the subpoena requests all records from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services, the agency that administers the state program, to determine if ineligible immigrants received supplemental security income from the Social Security Administration over the last four years.

“Radical left politicians in California prioritize illegal aliens over our own citizens, including by giving illegal aliens access to cash benefits,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.

“The Trump Administration is working together to identify abuse and exploitation of public benefits and make sure those in this country illegally are not receiving federal benefits or other financial incentives to stay illegally,” Noem added. “If you are an illegal immigrant, you should leave now. The gravy train is over. While this subpoena focuses only on Los Angeles County — it is just the beginning.”

According to Homeland Security, its Los Angeles investigations field office is subpoenaing records including applicants’ name and date of birth, copies of applications, immigration status, proof of ineligibility for benefits from the Social Security Administration and affidavits that supported the application.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office did not respond Monday to a request for comment and referred The Times to the California Department of Social Services. A department spokesman said it was reviewing the Trump administration’s request regarding the program administered by L.A. County.

A CDSS official said the initiative created in 1998 under Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, is 100% state-funded and administered by counties on behalf of the state, and is generally not available for undocumented Californians.

During the 2024-25 fiscal year, the official said, the program served 16,556 people.

The program is a state version of the federal Supplemental Security Income program available for the aged, blind or disabled with legal protections, lawful status or in the process of applying for either, including victims of crime and trafficking.

The Trump administration’s announcement of its investigation was “highly misleading,” said Tanya Broder, senior counsel on health and economic justice policy at the National Immigration Legal Center.

“They imply that people who are undocumented are receiving benefits, and they’re implying that they’re receiving federal benefits, when we’re talking about a state-funded program,” she said.

More than a quarter of a century ago, Broder said, California established the state-funded program for seniors after a 1996 federal law rendered them ineligible for federal SSI benefits.

“The program was established in order to make up for the gap,” Broder said. “It was during a period when many seniors and patients with disabilities were concerned that they would lose their monthly assistance. Some died by suicide, while others threatened to die by suicide.”

The 1996 federal law, Broder said, authorized states to provide benefits to immigrants with their own money, regardless of status.

“And that’s what California did,” she said. “Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for this program. But states are authorized to provide benefits with their own money in order to protect the health and safety and well being of people living in their community.”

Benyamin Chao, health and public benefits policy manager with the California Immigrant Policy Center, described the subpoena as “another example of the Trump administration overreaching and threatening the privacy of vulnerable Californians.”

“Cash payments through CAPI are only available to qualified immigrants, including legal permanent residents, asylees [people who have been granted asylum], humanitarian parolees, and victims of human trafficking, domestic violence, or other, specifically enumerated serious crimes,” Chao added. “By placing this program in its crosshairs, the Trump administration is targeting a 100% state-funded program that helps the elderly and people with disabilities.”

Some L.A. officials condemned the Trump administration for seeking to control how the state spent its money to protect elderly and disabled legal immigrants.

L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis said in a statement that the CAPI program supports “individuals who have built lives here, pay taxes, and contribute every day to the strength and vitality of our communities.”

“The Trump administration is unjustly targeting Los Angeles County for a program that does not use federal funding,” Solis added. “The investigation into our Department of Public Social Services’ role in administering CAPI is an invasive move that disregards privacy and due process under the guise of protecting taxpayer dollars. Los Angeles County is being singled out not for misconduct, but for fulfilling its role as a safety net for all residents.”

Kevin R. Johnson, a professor of law at UC Davis, said that the scope of the subpoena was breathtakingly broad. The subpoena, he noted, is not narrowed for privacy interests and seeks affidavits from people who support immigrants’ applications.

A lot of people could be worried, Johnson said, that any perceived support of someone who is undocumented could make them subject to criminal prosecution for harboring undocumented immigrants.

“Issuing a subpoena with this breadth is like trying to pick a fight, it’s asking for heaven and earth in terms of information,” Johnson said. “It’s classic Trump administration handiwork.”

Johnson, who specializes in immigration law, said there are two sides to the dispute: The federal government can work to ensure that benefits aren’t given to undocumented immigrants, as Congress has limited who can receive Social Security benefits and the localities have to comply with that law. But, he said, the county’s interest is: “‘Well, if they turn this information over, is it just going to be grist for the Trump mass deportation campaign?’”

The Department of Homeland Security states in its news release that more than 2 million “ineligible” immigrants received a Social Security number in fiscal year 2024.

According to the Public Policy Institute of California, about 1.1 million people receive Supplemental Security Income and State Supplementary Payments monthly grants, more than half of them age 65 and older. In addition, the institute said, the CAPI initiative serves about 15,000 legal residents who do not meet additional noncitizen criteria for SSI.

California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants’ website states that the 1996 Welfare Reform Act eliminated SSI and SSP eligibility for most noncitizens. But a small number of immigrants who live in California are eligible for the program if they are a low-income noncitizen who meets the immigration status criteria in effect for the programs as of Aug. 21, 1996, are 65 or older, blind or disabled, and ineligible for the supplementary payments solely due to their immigration status.

Johnson said he expected the subpoena to begin a long process, with challenges from L.A. County attorneys along with multiple court rulings.

While a more narrowly tailored subpoena from the administration may have been more effective for its investigation, Johnson said he suspects its goal was broader: to create a chilling effect among immigrants.

“Damage is done just by seeking the materials,” Johnson said.

“I don’t necessarily think the Trump administration cares if they win,” he added. “If they don’t get what they want, they’ll say it’s all the courts’ fault. But if you’re a person who receives any benefits, perhaps lawfully, you’re going to hear about this. It’s part of an entire mosaic of fear that’s being created in immigrant communities.”

The investigation comes after President Trump signed a presidential memorandum on April 15 to stop immigrants lacking documentation from obtaining Social Security Act benefits in what he called a bid to stop incentivizing illegal immigration and protect taxpayer dollars.

The memorandum directed the secretary of Homeland Security to ensure unauthorized immigrants do not receive funds from Social Security programs and prioritized civil or criminal enforcement against states or localities for potential violations of Title IV of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.

It also expanded the Social Security Administration’s fraud prosecutor program to at least 50 U.S. attorney offices and established a Medicare and Medicaid fraud-prosecution program in 15 U.S. attorney offices.

Broder said she hoped California officials would not respond to the Trump administration’s subpoena and provide information that it has collected with a promise of some privacy to applicants for the program.

“For programs to be successful in protecting health and safety of a state’s residents,” she said, “consumers need to know that their information will be used to administer the program and won’t be used to place them or their family members at risk.”