California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a budget plan Wednesday that seeks to cut back on health care benefits for undocumented immigrants.
It’s a stark reversal of the Democratic governor’s promises of universal health care for all, regardless of their immigration status.
In a lengthy budget presentation, Newsom said the proposal would help to balance the state’s budget, which has seen a multibillion-dollar shortfall that he has blamed on President Donald Trump’s tariffs, as well as growing costs from higher enrollment in the state’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal.
Newsom’s plan, which will need to be approved by the Democratic-led Legislature, comes as Trump’s administration has said it will investigate other aid programs California offers to undocumented immigrants.
Fact sheets on the proposal provided by Newsom’s office ahead of the presentation said that he would freeze enrollment in his 2025-26 budget for “undocumented adults” to receive the full scope of Medi-Cal. Newsom’s office said the changes would apply only to new applicants over 19 years old, that existing enrollees would not be kicked off their plans and that the freeze would not apply to people enrolled in limited plans, like ones that specifically cover emergency or pregnancy services. The freeze would begin in 2026.
The proposed changes also include a new $100 monthly premium for adults 19 and older with “unsatisfactory immigration status.” Newsom’s office said that “refers to people whose immigration status makes them ineligible for federally funded Medicaid, including people with lawful status and the undocumented.” The added premiums would begin in 2027.
The fact sheets from Newsom’s office also said he needed to take “corrective action” due to a $16 billion shortfall in state revenues that it blamed on “Trump’s pendulum swings on tariffs,” as well as the ballooning costs from higher enrollment in the Medi-Cal program that Newsom’s administration had expanded.
The plan also comes as congressional Republicans are advancing a bill that would slash Medicaid funding by 10 percent to states that, like California, provide health care coverage to undocumented immigrants.
“The challenge that we face this year and the challenge we will face for many years, is on growth of our Medicaid system, Medi-Cal,” Newsom said Wednesday. He said his approach “was not to kick people off and not to roll back the expansion, but to level set on what we can do and what we can’t do.”
Newsom also blamed the budget shortfall on Trump, saying that “California is under assault” and the “United States of America, in many respects is under assault because we have a president that’s been reckless in terms of assaulting growth engines” that have slowed the economy.
Newsom denied that his administration was “cutting or rolling back” the program, saying that, “We’re just capping it, particularly for those without documentation.”
Newsom’s expansion of Medi-Cal has cost far more than his administration anticipated. Earlier this year, Newsom made consecutive loan requests to help fund rising costs that were specifically the product of increased enrollment in the offered programs by undocumented immigrants living in California.
Newsom’s office said the moves proposed in his budget would save the state an estimated $5.4 billion by the 2028-29 budget year.
The proposals mark a significant departure from Newsom’s ground-breaking plan to expand government-provided health care for all low-income adults, including immigrants living in the country illegally. Those expansions have caused costs to balloon by billions of dollars in recent years.
He acknowledged on Wednesday the role that the higher-than-expected enrollment played in his new proposal to scale back the benefits.
“Clearly we’re not in a position to continue to do as much as we wish to do and want to do,” Newsom said.
A statement printed on materials provided by Newsom’s office claimed that the changes would help his administration keep its commitment and that the governor “remains committed to protecting” immigrant communities.
Newsom, widely viewed as a potential contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, has tacked to the right on a series of notable policy issues in recent months.
Earlier this week, Newsom called on California cities to adopt policies that would clear their streets of homeless encampments “without delay.”
And during a podcast interview with conservative commentator and Trump ally Charlie Kirk, Newsom infuriated some allies in the LGBTQ community when he said he opposes trans athletes competing in women’s and girls’ sports.
Adam Edelman
Adam Edelman is a politics reporter for NBC News.
