Rufo: California is Providing Free Sex-Change Operations to Illegal Aliens

AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

This is absolutely nuts. Christopher Rufo did some investigation in San Francisco after getting a tip from someone he calls a whistleblower. What he found was that SF homeless shelters were open to illegal aliens, which really isn't a surprise. California is a sanctuary state and does not cooperate with ICE on anything. So of course they aren't checking the immigration status of homeless people in shelters.

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Regular readers may also remember that last year Gov. Newsom signed a law which made all illegal aliens eligible for Medi-Cal, the state's version of Medicaid. And apparently that means some of the homeless illegal immigrants living in shelters are also getting free medical care which includes gender affirming care and surgery.

St. Vincent De Paul’s MSC-South facility is San Francisco’s largest homeless shelter, and, in 2024, signed a $66 million service contract with the city...

Among the shelter’s residents was a group of Hondurans who identified as transgender. During our visit to MSC-South, whose executive director did not respond to a request for comment, we spoke with two Honduran men, “Lyca” and “Alondra,” who identified as transgender women. Both indicated that the local government gave them shelter and food.

Lyca, who wore long hair and red lipstick, was candid about this arrangement. He confirmed that he was an illegal immigrant and that the shelter doesn’t ask questions about immigration status. “Tengo Medi-Cal,” he said, referring to the state health-care program, which, under Governor Gavin Newsom, began providing “full scope” coverage to illegal aliens, which includes transgender procedures, or “gender affirming care.” He said he was receiving cross-sex hormone therapy—and bore the physical signs of having done so...

Wearing rouge on his cheeks and a low-cut red shirt, Jacqueline flaunted his large chest. He said that he had gotten transgender hormone treatments, and confirmed that he had received breast implants from the state Medi-Cal program. Though Jacqueline claimed to be a legal resident, he suggested that the state also provides implants to illegal immigrants. “Even though you’re undocumented,” he said, “you can get them.”

“You have to have a process, the hormones . . . go through therapy,” he said. “Es un proceso.”

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Jacqueline has not had bottom surgery yet but said "I'm waiting for that one."

At another city-funded shelter, Rufo encountered another group of trans illegal aliens. They said they were also waiting on treatement (on the taxpayer's dime of course). Rufo suggests that word has spread back to Honduras and elsewhere that, if you can make it to California, the government will pay for whatever gender-affirming care you say you need.

It's "my body, my choice" but with someone else's money.

This is obviously not how the system is intended to work. There's a reason insurance doesn't cover elective surgeries and that's because they aren't medically necessary. If you want to get your teeth straightened, or your breasts enhanced, that's on you. The taxpayers are not on the hook for your cosmetic surgery. Except in this case, in California, it sounds like they are.

Even if you think these surgeries should somehow be paid for by the public, we shouldn't be paying for them for everyone in the world. But again, it seems in California we are. How can we possible afford that? Well, we can't. In fact, Gov. Newsom had to pull back on his offer of free health care for illegal immigrants because the cost was billions higher than expected. It's a big part of why the state faces a huge budget deficit right now, though Democrats never say that because it would sound bad.

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But fear not, Democrats have a plan to fix it:

That's it. That's always the plan. Get someone else to pay. In fact, that's already what we do.

But it's still not nearly enough. In California, some Dems are pushing a "one-time" wealth tax on billionaires. It's supposed to raise $100 billion dollars (which it won't) and that money is intended to be spent mostly on health care over four years. 

What happens at the end of four years when the state is once again spending more money than it has? That's a secret but you can probably guess that the "one-time" tax will become a two-time tax or maybe just a permanent tax. The fact that all the billionaires in the US don't have enough wealth to cover more than a few years of free health care for everyone doesn't seem to matter to Democrats. Like all socialists, they have a slogan and they are going to stick to it whether it works or not.

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David Strom 12:00 PM | April 15, 2026
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