California lawmakers could soon make the state the first in the nation to offer state-backed home loans of up to $150,000 to undocumented immigrants.
California’s Democratic majority in the Assembly is expected to pass a bill this week that would make undocumented immigrants eligible for the “California Dream for All” loan program, a state-funded program that would help cover 20% of down payments on loans up to $150,000. Report from Politico.
Participants in the program must be first-time homebuyers, with at least one person being a first-generation homebuyer, and income levels must be below certain limits depending on the county in which the recipient lives.
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California Governor Gavin Newsom takes a breather during a press conference after touring Barron Park Elementary School on March 2, 2021 in Palo Alto, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The move comes against the backdrop of a national election in which immigration has been a hot topic, the report noted, with the Trump campaign seeking to link Vice President Kamala Harris to the Biden administration’s border policies, which have been unpopular with voters.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was one of Biden’s top surrogates during the campaign and now Ms. Harris, has not said whether he would sign the bill into law if it passes Congress before the Aug. 31 deadline.
Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Meanwhile, Trump campaign spokeswoman Carolyn Leavitt told Politico that the bill is “fundamentally unfair, but it’s quintessential Democratic policy.”
Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Desert Diamond Arena, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Glendale, Arizona. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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But the state’s Democratic lawmakers have defended the bill, arguing it is simply intended to give undocumented residents the same benefits as everyone else in the state.
“It’s not going to be a blind giveaway to everybody,” Democratic Rep. Eloise Gomez Reyes said at a hearing on the bill in June.
Joaquin Arambula, the Democratic state Assemblyman who authored the bill, argued that people would still need to meet federal requirements to apply for the loans, such as providing their taxpayer identification number and Social Security number.
At issue, Arambula said, is a federal law that bars illegal immigrants from receiving state benefits without state laws that specifically state who is eligible.
Vice President Kamala Harris. (Photo by Kenny Holston Pool/Getty Images)
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“We just wanted to make the policy as inclusive as possible so that it would cover everyone who pays taxes in the state,” Arambula told Politico. “We felt that without the intentional legislation that we were putting in place, many in the immigrant community would have complex issues and questions.”
When asked by Fox News Digital if this clarification had changed the Trump campaign’s stance on the bill, Leavitt simply replied, “No.”
