California Democrats found another way to waste taxpayer money on illegal aliens, providing them “free” refrigerators, windows, and solar panels as part of a program to help low-income farmworkers.
In California, many low-income farmworkers are illegal aliens, which is exactly how the Democrats’ affluent voters want it, because illegal aliens will often work for less money in worse conditions and without benefits. Then again, maybe the aliens are working for benefits after all, considering the number of taxpayer-funded programs that California opened to lawbreaking foreigners. The latest scandal centers around the Farmworker Housing Component of the Low-Income Weatherization Program, according to City Journal’s Christopher Rufo and Austen Hufford.
Hufford and Rufo wrote that this initiative is “part of California’s sprawling, multibillion-dollar ‘cap-and-trade’ system, which taxes carbon producers and redistributes approximately $3 billion per year to energy programs and left-wing social causes—all under the banner of fighting ‘climate change.’” $49 million has gone to the farmworkers program specifically since 2019.
As you might expect from a slush fund that is based on woke fiction (catastrophic climate change) and that literally taxes the building block of life (carbon) under the excuse of saving lives, the money generally goes to fund ideologically driven boondoggles, per Hufford and Rufo. The farmworkers program uses a complex and “opaque web” of nonprofits, private contractors, and California’s Department of Community Services and Development.
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Nonprofit La Cooperativa Campesina de California is in charge of the program by government fiat, Hufford and Rufo explained. La Cooperativa then partnered with MAROMA Energy Services, which describes itself as “minority owned,” and together they contract out the work of installing solar panels and appliances to private entities.
[City Journal, May 26] These organizations have heavily advertised the program to California’s nearly 900,000 agricultural workers, half to three-quarters of whom are illegal immigrants. In its official documentation, California’s Department of Community Services and Development acknowledges that non-citizens are eligible for the program and that they even accept identification from foreign governments.
In a Spanish-language radio broadcast, Natalie Velores, a program manager for MAROMA, confirmed that participants do not need “legal status” in the United States and can use a matrìcula consular, a common form of identification that the Mexican consulate provides to migrants who have crossed the border, to apply.
Velores said that any ID is acceptable, even if it is not American. MAROMA customer service representative Ángel Quintanilla confirmed to Hufford and Rufo that he provides solar panels to illegal aliens.
And those involved in the program will go to great lengths to ensure farmworkers, even in more obscure rural areas, know about the program. One subcontractor had people driving hundreds of miles a day to talk to farmworkers and tell them about the program. They were disappointed when the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown led to fewer illegal aliens showing up for work, meaning the leeches involved in running the program had less business for their wealth redistribution.
A California government spokesman told Hufford and Rufo that the corrupt program was necessary to help “disadvantaged communities” maintain their desired temperature within their homes while also pushing Democrats’ climate alarmist goals.
Here’s what could be the most shocking part:
Despite a $49 million budget and nearly seven years of operation, the farmworker “weatherization” program has only provided services to about 2,000 families. That means the State of California has allocated roughly $23,000 per household for its program to provide free solar panels, refrigerators, and other services—a number that raises serious concerns about financial accountability.
One problem: the same man, Mauricio Blanco, seems to be connected to entities at multiple stages in the flow of funds. Blanco worked as a project manager for La Cooperativa Campesina de California, which has been awarded at least $10.7 million by the state; is currently listed as an executive of MAROMA Energy Services, which has been granted nearly $34 million from La Cooperativa for “weatherization” services since 2017; and is CEO of John Harrison Contracting, a firm that appears to have done much of the solar installation work. He acknowledged but did not address our request for comment.
Programs like this are why California is facing an $18 billion budget deficit.
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