California lawmakers could move as soon as this week to become the first state to allow non-U.S. citizens, including illegal immigrants , to be eligible for state-funded loans for down payments on homes .
Between now and Friday, the California legislature is expected to vote on a bill that would provide up to $150,000 per home to cover the initial buying costs. The bill is likely to pass given Democrats' supermajority in the state Assembly and Senate.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has not indicated if he would support the bill.
"The Governor will evaluate the bill on its merits should it reach his desk," a spokesperson for Newsom wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner on Monday.
However, California's move could become a bigger issue, given voter concerns about immigration in the 2024 election.
More than 1,000 miles north of the southern border, Republican voters who turned out at the polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina earlier this year had one issue front of mind: immigration. It has topped Gallup polls throughout the spring and remained a primary concern over the summer.
Democratic Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula of Fresno, California, introduced the California Dream for All loan program and intended it as one that would target homebuyers, not immigrants.
“It isn’t given out willy-nilly to just anybody,” Assemblywoman Eloise Gómez Reyes, a Democrat, said during a June hearing.
Those approved will receive 20% in assistance, up to $150,000, toward a down payment. Unlike bank loans, this type of shared appreciation loan comes with the caveat of the buyer paying 15% or 20% of the home's increased value at the time of sale back to the state as interest.
Arambula pitched the bill as a response to federal law, which does not allow illegal immigrants from receiving state benefits without a state law that makes them eligible.
“We simply wanted to be as inclusive as possible within our policies so that all who are paying taxes here in our state were able to qualify,” Arambula told Politico.
To be eligible for the loan, applicants would have to meet the Federal National Mortgage Association's criteria and be able to provide a taxpayer identification number or Social Security number.
Immigrants who were released into the country from the border and allowed to remain through court proceedings could be eligible if they have an individual taxpayer identification number.
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California is one of the most expensive states in the country to buy a home and has the largest share of illegal immigrants nationwide.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told Politico that the bill was “fundamentally unfair but typical Democrat policy."
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