California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes $150K down payment ‘handout’ to illegal immigrant home buyers

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom struck down a bill Friday that would have made the Golden State the first in the nation to offer down payment assistance to illegal immigrant home buyers.

Assembly Bill 1840, which was approved by both chambers of the Democrat-controlled California Legislature last month, sought to grant undocumented immigrants access to the state’s taxpayer-funded home loan program, which provides up to $150,000 in down payment assistance for eligible first-time home buyers. 

Newsom, 56, expressed concern over the budgetary impact the expansion of the program would have in his veto announcement. 

“Given the finite funding available for [California Housing Finance Agency] programs, expanding program eligibility must be carefully considered within the broader context of the annual state budget to ensure we manage our resources effectively,” he wrote in a memo to California lawmakers. “For this reason, I am unable to sign this bill.” 

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California faced a $46 billion budget deficit last fiscal year before Newsom signed the state’s new spending plan in June.

Newsom’s veto follows intense criticism of the bill from California Republicans, who argued that it was nothing more than a “handout” and a “betrayal” of citizens of the state that would incentivize illegal immigration. 

“Expanding state-funded home loans to include illegal immigrants is not just another handout — it’s a massive overreach that shifts the financial burden onto law-abiding taxpayers,” San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond said of AB 1840 in an X post. 

“One million Californians live in deep poverty, and 180,000 are homeless … This is an unbelievable betrayal to the citizens of this state,” Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez (R-Rancho Santa Margarita) wrote on X after the measure cleared the state assembly. 

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The California governor’s decision not to sign the bill into law also comes one day after former President Donald Trump slammed the legislation during a speech at the Economic Club of New York on Thursday, where he announced that if elected, he would  “ban mortgages for illegal aliens.” 

“In California they’re passing a law where they’re going to give illegal aliens money to buy a house,” Trump said. “But our soldiers, our veterans that are laying on the streets can’t have them.” 

Newsom denied that politics played any role in his veto decision. 

“The bill that was sent to me was a program that had no money, and it was expanding eligibility to a program that had no money,” Newsom told reporters, according to Politico. 

“It seemed rather curious to me,” he added. “So it was unnecessary and completely consistent with prior vetoes along those similar lines.”