Democratic California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter said Tuesday that she supported taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal aliens.
During a gubernatorial debate hosted by CNN, Porter answered that she supported funding healthcare for illegal aliens because Californians cannot “afford” to have sick people making them ill. Many establishment Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have denied wanting to fund healthcare for those illegally in the U.S.
“Congresswoman Porter, your thoughts on the idea of funding health care for undocumented immigrants statewide?” the moderator said.
“Yes, and that’s, by the way, what I think Californians deserve as answers to these questions, Alex,” Porter said. “Yes. We can’t afford to have people sick who are making the rest of us sick.”
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California became the first state to provide Medicare coverage to all immigrants who met income requirements. Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s final budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year allocates an estimated $10 billion for giving healthcare coverage to illegal aliens.
Republicans and the White House accused Democrats of shutting the government down in October to give illegal aliens subsidized healthcare, which Democrats vehemently denied. However, a large number of foreign nationals were eligible for subsidized healthcare while being illegally present in the U.S.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in October that Medicaid spending for illegal immigrants nearly tripled under former President Joe Biden’s administration and that the program’s costs for illegal immigrants’ emergency care rose 142% in the fiscal year 2024. In 2023, Healthcare professionals in Southern California reported that the healthcare system had been “bombarded” with illegal immigrants and caused American citizen patients to endure longer wait times.
Polls found former Fox News host Steve Hilton and former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra to be neck-and-neck as the frontrunners in the race. An Evitarius survey from Monday found Becerra and Hilton tied at 18%, while Porter came in at 8%. A YouGov poll from April 28 found Porter standing at 9%, while Hilton was slightly in the lead at 16%.
Porter came under scrutiny in October after viral footage showed her storming out of an interview after a reporter asked how she planned to appeal to voters who supported President Donald Trump. Separate footage from 2021 also showed her shouting at a member of her staff as she became visible in front of the camera to correct the then-congresswoman’s statement on electric vehicles.
Porter also allegedly poured scalding hot potatoes on her now-ex-husband’s head during an argument.
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