The Associated Press calls them immigrants without legal status. A lot of people call them illegal immigrants. Whether you say tomato or “tomatoe,” it is one big dilemma.

And it is getting very expensive.

Keep in mind what you see is not always what you get. In other words, there are a lot of kernels of truth on both sides of the fence when it comes to those either illegally here in the United States or who played the asylum card and are in limbo.

It should be noted when the proverbial floodgates opened with how one could contend you crossed into the United States illegally because you were seeking asylum, migration scholars leaning both ways noted the threshold for immigration courts to actually grant asylum is actually high.

They predicted most, when or if they ever made it to court, would not succeed.

Meanwhile, they were released into the United States with instructions to wait for a court date that could be years away due to the crush.

They can’t legally work in the United States. Yes, there are a lot of illegal immigrants that do. That said, those who have gone the asylum route aren’t typically working even illegally and paying taxes.

This is a costly problem.

How costly? For California alone, it is now a $14 billion cost in state spending and growing for Medi-Cal alone for illegal immigrants with more than three months left in the fiscal year.

That’s because Gov. Gavin Newsom at the start of 2024 extended Medi-Cal to all illegal immigrants.

Given children, the elderly, and the pregnant who were undocumented migrants already had been extended coverage, this added those between 18 and 64 to Medi-Cal rolls.

Newsom, when he made free access carte blanche to Medi-Cal, estimated the overall cost for the state to extend the coverage to all immigrants regardless of their status at $8.5 billion for a year.

Just like the price tag for high-speed rail, Newsom wasn’t anywhere near the ballpark. 

The state last week had to borrow $3.5 billion from the general fund that pays for schools, prison, state park upkeep, highway maintenance, CHP, and such to keep Medi-Cal afloat.

The $3.5 billion included $800 million to cover a projected shortfall in coverage for legal citizens. The rest, $2.7 billion, was for illegals.

Then, on March 17, Newsom updated the figures. There was actually a $5.5 billion shortfall for illegal immigrant converge. That’s 43 percent more than was budgeted.

If you are of the school of thought, this is outrageous, you are right but only to a degree.

The reason California crossed over the Rubicon into providing healthcare for illegals was a bid to save taxpayers money and keep the medical system — particularly emergency rooms — from collapsing.

Five other states followed suit. Five other states, mind you, that just like California for years have had to absorb illegally immigrants.

But then the get-out-of-jail-free card — uttering the words “I want asylum” — changed the landscape.

The original reason for Medi-Cal for illegals in certain classes such as children, the pregnant, and then the later addition of the elderly before Newsom lifted all restrictions was the fact the previously targeted populations often ended up accessing the healthcare system as a last resort. In other words, they ended up in emergency rooms and such that can’t refuse access if they are not part of a closed health care system.

Such care to tackle a wide array of maladies is significantly more expensive than in a non-emergency situation.

Healthy pregnant women and healthy children also would mean fewer impacts on the bottom line.

Going the final step with those who are the healthiest as a group — ages 18 to 64 — wasn’t supposed to cost that much.

That was before the barrier to even claim you are an asylum seeker was dropped so low that everyone qualified to come in to the country and then be released as they were added to the crushing backlog of asylum cases.

Sacramento now has to drain $5.5 billion from general fund reserves to pay for Medi-Cal coverage for illegal migrants.

Now for the punchline: Newsom and the California Legislature went to what is essentially universal health care for those here illegally on the assumption they could eventually get the federal government to reimburse most of it.

Guess what is logically the biggest targeted for cutting Medicare (the federal umbrella for Medi-Cal and similar plans in the 50 states) with minimal backlash? It’s the federal government cutting reimbursements to the six states for any coverage they provide for illegal migrants.

Good luck “Trump proofing” that “California value.” It clearly is the low-hanging fruit.

Cutting off reimbursing California for a large chunk of Medi-Cal for illegal migrants within literally save the federal government billions.

And going from a crafted approach to all illegal migrants effectively painted a massive bullseye on California.

Newsom overshot the runway big time on this one.

The optics are made worse by data that some people like Assemblyman Carl DeMaio point to that shows one out of every four Medi-Cal recipients are illegal immigrants.

We should have a moral obligation to extend healthcare to the illegal immigrants who work in the fields. Not only do we need them, but we have essentially taken advantage of them by not demanding elected leaders create a more robust H-2B system where those from other countries that want to work in agriculture are afforded basic needs as part of an honest labor agreement.

The free-for-all asylum gig is a completely different story.

Add to the fact that there are indeed illegal migrants working here in areas besides agriculture who are paying taxes as they managed to get a fake Social Security card so they can be employed but can’t get any benefits from the system because of their illegal status.

Then there are those paid “off the books” that allow their employers to avoid paying payroll taxes and likely do so paying sub-legal wages.

The bottom line is this is a budget crisis of Newsom’s own making although he got a lot of help from the nation’s de facto open door policy of the last four years under Biden.

Stay tune to the next edition of the “This is Gavin Newsom” podcast.

Getting out of this political fix will demand the Mother of All Houdini acts.

—  This column is the opinion of Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Courier or 209 Multimedia. He may be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com