California’s latest giveaway to illegal immigrants could come in the form of monthly phone service subsidies — but the proposal is already facing fierce opposition from lawmakers who tell the Sun that the state shouldn’t “reward” individuals living in America illegally. 

The state’s Public Utilities Commission on September 26 is scheduled to vote on a first-of-its-kind proposal that would create a process for applicants to receive benefits of the California Lifeline program regardless of whether they have a Social Security number, Politico reported. That means undocumented immigrants would be eligible to receive monthly phone service subsidies and exemptions on several phone-related taxes and fees. The utilities commission had decided a decade ago to allow illegal immigrants to be eligible but never actually put the process in place, the proposal notes. 

The federal Lifeline program stirred national attention during the Obama administration when the idea was circulated that President Obama was giving out free phones — dubbed “Obama phones” — though the program first began in 1985, when President Reagan was in office.

“We cannot try to take care of the citizens of other nations when Californians cannot afford groceries or gasoline,” a Republican California assemblyman, Bill Essayli, tells the Sun in response to the proposal. “I am the son of immigrants, my parents came here legally and built the American dream for me and my sisters. We cannot reward those who break our laws with free healthcare, free tuition, and now free cellphones. It is morally and fiscally irresponsible.”

A Republican state senator, Brian Dahle, tells the Sun that the state’s limited resources shouldn’t be used as a “reward” for illegal immigrants.

“Government subsidies drive up costs, and ultimately hurt working families,” he says. “California has several major fires right now, and I can think of a lot of Californians who could use extra resources to help them rebuild and recover, or even financial assistance to keep their homeowners’ insurance. We shouldn’t continue to reward individuals who broke federal law.”

The Sun reached out to Governor Newsom’s office and the state’s utilities commission for comment but has not heard back. 

California has garnered national attention in recent months for its programs to benefit illegal immigrants: In January, the state expanded access to its healthcare coverage program for low-income residents, Medi-Cal, to more than 700,000 undocumented immigrants despite facing record budget shortfalls, as the Sun reported at the time. More recently, the state’s legislature approved a first-of-its-kind loan program called the “California Dream for All,” which would have provided up to $150,000 to illegal immigrants for home loan assistance. Governor Newsom vetoed that bill last week, citing “finite funding.” 

Immigration has been a critical issue in the presidential election, with recent Pew Research data indicating that 61 percent of voters saying the issue is “very important” to them, up 9 percentage points from the 2020 election and 13 percentage points from the 2022 midterm elections. 

While that percentage is higher among President Trump’s supporters — with more than 80 percent putting immigration as “very important” to their vote — the issue is important to a sizable chunk of Vice President Harris’s supporters as well, with 39 percent citing immigration as “very important.”