Gavin Newsom spent $9 billion of your money giving healthcare to illegal immigrants last year.
Now we know exactly what that money bought.
Chris Rufo walked into a San Francisco homeless shelter with a camera – and what he found on tape is something Newsom cannot explain away.
Rufo Walked Into a San Francisco Homeless Shelter and Found Illegal Immigrants on Medi-Cal
Rufo didn't write a think-tank report.
He went to MSC-South – San Francisco's largest homeless shelter, operating on a $66 million city contract – and started asking questions.
Inside, he found illegal immigrants from Honduras, Mexico, El Salvador, and Venezuela living on taxpayer-funded housing and food.
He also found something else.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2042253851475030416?s=20
A Honduran man who identifies as a transgender woman told Rufo on camera that he receives cross-sex hormone therapy through California's Medi-Cal program.
At the Embarcadero SAFE Navigation Center, Rufo found Jacqueline – a migrant living in a government shelter who confirmed he received breast implants paid for by the state.
"Even though you're undocumented," Jacqueline told Rufo, "you can get them."
When asked whether he had also completed bottom surgery, Jacqueline said he was still waiting for it.
Rufo asked the shelters' executive directors for comment. None responded.
Newsom's Office Confirmed It
Fox News Digital called Newsom's office and asked directly: do illegal immigrants receive this coverage?
The answer was yes, without hesitation.
"Undocumented Californians don't get special treatment. Everyone on Medi-Cal gets the same access to care," a spokesperson said.
That's not a denial. That's a confession.
The California Department of Health Care Services tried to add caveats – insisting coverage is only granted when "medically necessary."
But the Medi-Cal manual Rufo obtained closes that loophole immediately.
https://twitter.com/liz_churchill10/status/2044520063940592070?s=20
Reconstructive surgery qualifies as medically necessary whenever a doctor determines it will treat gender dysphoria.
In practice, that means the program approves it.
There are currently 1.7 million illegal immigrants enrolled in full-scope Medi-Cal – a program Newsom expanded to every illegal immigrant in the state, regardless of age or how long they'd been here, in January 2024.
Word traveled south.
Transgender communities across Honduras, Mexico, and Central America learned the same thing: make it to California, and the state picks up the tab for your shelter, hormones, and surgeries.
California Is Running an $18 Billion Deficit and Democrats Want to Expand the Program
Here's where it gets worse.
Medi-Cal costs for the illegal immigrant population came in $2.7 billion higher than projected.
California's own budget analyst warned in late 2025 that the state faced a fourth consecutive year of budget problems – with an immediate $18 billion gap that could balloon further if left unclosed.
So in January 2026, California froze new Medi-Cal enrollment for undocumented adults – an admission that the program had broken the bank.
Then Democrat lawmakers immediately introduced Senate Bill 1422 to reverse the freeze and lock in full coverage for illegal immigrants permanently.
One Democratic state senator told reporters she was banking on "a miracle" to make the finances work.
That's the word she used.
A miracle.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung had a different word for it. After Rufo's video broke, Cheung posted on X: "This is like the holy trinity of woke, liberal, out-of-touch, perverse ideology from Scumbag Gavin Newsom."
https://twitter.com/StevenCheung47/status/2044770066386883012?s=20
Newsom Wants to Be Your President
This is the record Gavin Newsom is carrying into 2028.
His all-but-declared presidential campaign launched this year while California's budget analyst was warning legislators they were running out of tools to close the deficit.
He burned the money.
He expanded the program.
He confirmed the coverage when a reporter asked him directly.
And now he's going to stand on a debate stage somewhere in Iowa and tell you he's the man to fix what Democrats broke.
https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2042254805620363718?s=20
Illegal immigrants crossed the border knowing California would hand them a shelter bed, pay for their hormones, and put them on a waiting list for surgery – while California veterans sleep on the streets of Los Angeles and the state digs deeper into the red every year.
That's Gavin Newsom's California.
He built it.
He owns it.
And he wants to bring it to the rest of the country.
Sources:
- Elaine Mallon, "Illegal aliens are getting taxpayer-funded boob jobs and sex change ops in Newsom's California, watchdog says," Fox News, April 16, 2026.
- Christopher Rufo, "California Provides Sex-Change Procedures to Homeless Illegal Aliens," City Journal, April 15, 2026.
- California Legislative Analyst's Office, "The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Health," October 2025.
- Dan Walters, "California's urgent issues loom over Newsom campaign and his would-be successors," CalMatters, January 2026.
- Steven Cheung, post on X, April 2026.