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Illegal immigrants staying in homeless shelters in California have undergone sex change procedures and cross-sex hormone therapy treatments on the taxpayers’ dime, a watchdog unearthed.
Manhattan Institute fellow Chris Rufo reports in a video that some illegal immigrants have accessed transgender medical procedures through California’s Medi-Cal program, which provides healthcare coverage to low-income residents regardless of immigration status. The state spends roughly $9 billion in taxpayer dollars to provide healthcare for illegal immigrants, which also includes transgender care, according to the California Department of Health Care Services.
Roughly 1.7 million illegal immigrants received full-scope coverage in California’s Medicaid program, which in some instances included “gender-affirming care.” California Gov. Gavin Newsom expanded the state’s Medicaid program known as Medi-Cal to all immigrants — regardless of legal status — in January 2024.
Rufo filmed his encounters with illegal immigrants who are also transgender outside taxpayer-funded homeless shelters in San Francisco. The video shows one illegal immigrant, a transgender woman from Honduras, talking about how they received cross-sex gender therapy treatment through the state’s Medicaid program.
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Another migrant interviewed, who claimed to have legal status, said they were able to get taxpayer-funded breast implants.
Newsom’s office confirmed to Fox News Digital that illegal immigrants receive the same coverage as low-income Californians under Medi-Cal, including access to sex reassignment hormone therapy and procedures.
“Undocumented Californians don’t get special treatment. Everyone on Medi-Cal gets the same access to care,” a spokesperson for Newsom’s office said in a statement. “If you want to call California woke for not letting politicians interfere with doctors — or not wanting people to die in the streets — then go ahead.”
White House Communications director Steven Cheung slammed Newsom.
“This is like the holy trinity of woke, liberal, out-of-touch, perverse ideology from Scumbag Gavin Newsom,” Cheung wrote on X.
California DHCS said in a statement to Fox News Digital that Rufo’s video and accompanying article contains “significant factual errors and mischaracterizes both Medi-Cal eligibility and covered benefits.”
“It suggests that the State broadly provides gender-affirming surgeries to specific populations without limitation, which is completely false. Medi-Cal is a needs-based program with strict eligibility requirements,” DHCS said in a statement.
DHCS added that Medi-Cal coverage for transgender care is granted if it’s deemed “medically necessary.”
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“Medi-Cal covers gender-affirming care for members with full-scope Medi-Cal only when it is medically necessary, based on established clinical standards and consistent with nationally recognized clinical practice guidelines,” the agency said.
But, a Medi-Cal manual reported by Rufo outlined that medical intervention is necessary if the treatment will alleviate symptoms of gender dysphoria. For instance, reconstructive surgery would be approved for coverage if it’s “determined to be medically necessary for the treatment of gender dysphoria.”
State Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation, known as Senate Bill 1422, which would ensure all illegal immigrants in the state receive coverage under the state’s Medicaid program known as Medi-Cal.
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The legislation comes in response to California pausing new enrollment in Medi-Cal in January for all adults over the age of 19 without legal immigration status in the United States. The pause in coverage comes amid rising costs as the state faces a $21 billion budget deficit for the 2027 fiscal year.
Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom’s office for comment.
Fox News’ William La Jeuenesse contributed to this report.
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