The latest coronavirus relief funding in California is on the way, but it’s not going to be delivered to small businesses or recently furloughed citizens. Roughly $125 million will be sent to 150,000 illegal aliens living in the Golden State. The news was announced by Governor Gavin Newsom, who feels “a deep sense of gratitude” for all of the people living in his state illegally and he wants to make sure that everyone is okay. Of course, most of them are already getting free health care, driver’s licenses and numerous other perks on the taxpayer’s dime, but a little extra cash always helps, amirite? (Associated Press)

California will give cash payments to immigrants living in the country illegally, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday, using a mix of taxpayer money and charitable contributions to give 150,000 adults $500 each during the coronavirus outbreak.

California has an estimated 2 million immigrants living in the country illegally. They are not eligible for the $2.2 trillion stimulus package approved by Congress last month, which gives cash payments to most Americans plus boosts unemployment benefits by $600 per week.

“We feel a deep sense of gratitude for people that are in fear of deportations that are still addressing essential needs of tens of millions of Californians,” said Newsom, who noted 10% of the state’s workforce are immigrants living in the country illegally who paid more than $2.5 billion in state and local taxes last year.

You’ll notice that Governor Newsom is proudly bragging about how 10% of the state’s workforce might be illegal aliens and they pay billions of dollars in taxes every year. Here’s a fun fact for the governor. It’s a felony to employ illegal aliens. Under Title 8, Section 1324a, you can be fined as much as $10,000 for each instance and sentenced to up to six months in prison.

There are plenty of other questions surrounding this decision. For one thing, current estimates indicate that there are as many as two million illegal aliens in California. These checks are expected to go out to 150,000 people. How will they decide which illegals get the money and who won’t? As Jason Hopkins points out at the Daily Caller, illegal aliens will be able to apply for payments from this relief fund beginning in May. Will this just be a first-come, first-served type of system?

Also, for Newsom to send checks to that many people, the application process would have to generate a list of all their names and addresses. Will that list been shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement? (Oh, who am I kidding? Like Newsom would ever do anything to help ICE enforce the law.)

Newsom is the elected chief executive of California, which means that he’s supposed to represent all of the citizens of the state, not just the ones who agree with him. While it’s easy to forget, there are still a significant number of conservatives living on the west coast, and many of them are undoubtedly not thrilled with the idea of their tax dollars being spent in this way. There are millions of citizens in California, both native-born and naturalized, along with plenty of immigrants who are in the country legally, who are being severely impacted by the effects of the pandemic. If the state has that much money just lying around with no purpose, don’t you suppose that they could use the help?

A portion of the funding for this initiative came from charities. That’s fine. People are free to donate to whatever cause they wish. (Well, technically that’s also a felony under the “Encouraging/Inducing” clause of the aforementioned law, but let’s not quibble over that.) But when you’re spending taxpayer money in clear violation of the law, particularly when so many others who are in the country legally could use the help, you’re making a mockery of the high office you hold.