Politics
Why flush California still takes child support from low-income families
Even in a time of funds surplus, California takes cash from baby assist meant for low-income households and retains it in state coffers.
The state typically requires households enrolled in CalWORKs, the state’s public help program, to open a baby assist case in order that the federal government can later “get better” the price from the noncustodial father or mother — normally the father — as a kind of reimbursement to itself for that money assist.
Now, Gov. Gavin Newsom is attempting to chip away on the coverage, formed by a 1975 federal legislation that created a baby assist enforcement program with a give attention to “welfare value restoration.” However the governor’s plans cease in need of giving households on public help full entry to their baby assist funds with out state intervention.
Public help and baby assist are all however inextricable. The packages are so intertwined that when a baby’s major caretaker, who is usually the mom, seeks to enroll in CalWORKs, she’s usually pressured to open a baby assist case with the intention to guarantee the federal government is reimbursed — even when she doesn’t wish to.
One mom in San Diego County, who requested to not be named for security causes, stated she was proof against pursue baby assist for her 4-year-old as a result of she has a restraining order towards his father, but it surely was the one approach she may obtain money assist and providers from CalWORKs.
“When you don’t have [a child support case] open, they mechanically pursue it for you. It’s non-negotiable, and the logic is: We’ll assist you to, however any individual’s obtained to pay us again,” she stated. “So many individuals that I do know don’t pursue getting assist due to that requirement.”
States can provide extra money to low-income households than the federal authorities typically permits — so long as they’re keen to pay for it.
In an effort to give these households full baby assist funds, the state must discover a method to make up for the income that baby assist collections usher in, plus ship the federal authorities a examine for its portion, totaling no less than $150 million, in response to the California Division of Little one Help Companies.
The state’s funds for the 2022-23 12 months is $286.4 billion.
No less than 175,000 low-income households in California are eligible for less than a portion of kid assist as a result of in addition they obtain public help. The remainder goes to the state, counties and the federal authorities.
As much as 620,000 further households may obtain entry to their full baby assist quantity beneath a proposal in Newsom’s funds unveiled final month. The proposal would direct baby assist to oldsters who beforehand obtained public help — lots of whom not qualify although they keep low incomes.
When a father or mother leaves the CalWORKs program, the state can not hold a few of their baby assist funds. But when the noncustodial father or mother did not sustain with the required funds, the state continues to take a portion of the cash to cowl the price of the sooner help.
Mother and father who at present or beforehand obtained authorities help represent greater than 75% of the kid assist caseload in California, in response to the state Division of Finance.
“When the father or mother who’s not dwelling with the kids makes a cost, which all of us need them to do, the kids don’t get the cash,” stated Mike Herald, director of coverage advocacy for the Western Heart on Legislation & Poverty. “The general public doesn’t perceive this. Individuals suppose that the explanation we now have a harsh baby assist system is so we will get cash to children, however really it’s to get cash to the federal government.”
A custodial father or mother who has by no means obtained CalWORKs assist will get to maintain the complete quantity of baby assist.
Dana Maciel, a scholar on the West Hills Neighborhood Faculty District in Coalinga who has 4 kids ages 1 to 12, known as the coverage “emotionally draining.”
Maciel, a CalWORKs recipient, stated that she feels punished for being poor. The system pushes dad and mom to work their approach out of needing public help solely to proceed to take from them once they not want it, she stated.
“You labored so onerous for nothing. The state nonetheless takes it away. It’s pointless,” she stated. “It comes to some extent the place you find yourself being again within the system. They are saying they wish to assist you to but it surely doesn’t actually really feel like that.”
In 2020, Newsom moved to extend the quantity that households enrolled in CalWORKs obtain in baby assist from $50 to $100 for one baby and $200 for 2 or extra kids — the utmost quantity the federal authorities is keen to cross via to households with out requiring the state to backfill the monetary loss.
Different states, together with Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania, provide that very same most quantity to households.
Within the San Diego County mom’s case, her baby’s father pays about $350 a month in baby assist, primarily based on his revenue, however she is solely eligible to obtain as much as $100. Earlier than Newsom’s coverage kicked in final month, she obtained simply $50 per thirty days.
Colorado offers 100% of kid assist to households on help, and to make up for it, dedicates a portion of its state funds every year to cowl the federal requirement. The Colorado Division of Human Companies reported that within the first two years of implementation, households obtained $11.7 million greater than that they had earlier than and baby assist funds elevated as paying dad and mom had been extra inclined to pay once they knew the cash went on to households and never the federal government.
Half of all states don’t cross on any baby assist to households on help, and a few states present lower than California, in response to the Nationwide Convention of State Legislatures.
Newsom’s funds proposes that the California Division of Little one Help Companies waive its share of “recoupment” for households that previously obtained CalWORKs help, which might end in a income lack of $52.3 million for the state within the coming fiscal 12 months and greater than $104 million in ongoing funds by redirecting the cash to the meant households as a substitute of maintaining it in state coffers.
“Offering these funds on to households could assist low-income households scale back the burden of high-cost debt and stabilize their monetary place,” Newsom wrote in his funds.
However households at present enrolled in CalWORKs would nonetheless have a portion of their baby assist funds intercepted by the state.
The Newsom administration has pointed to federal guidelines as a hindrance to doing extra, however father or mother and anti-poverty advocates are pushing the state, which is now flush with money, to observe Colorado’s lead.
Newsom’s give attention to households previously on help, as a substitute of these at present on help, permits the state to keep away from having to pay the federal authorities a multimillion-dollar invoice every year.
Nevertheless, directing extra money to these at present on CalWORKs makes extra sense, in response to a report launched by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Workplace this month.
The common former CalWORKs recipient who would profit from Newsom’s proposal is a low-income 52-year-old father or mother with grownup kids, in response to the report. An estimated 75% of former CalWORKs circumstances not have an energetic baby assist order, most likely as a result of the kid has reached maturity, in response to the report.
Regardless of the federal guidelines, the state has discretion over how a lot baby assist it offers to households, and Newsom’s proposal “doesn’t establish a transparent purpose” to have completely different insurance policies for various households, the report states. Giving extra money to each present and former CalWORKs households is “not mutually unique,” in response to the report.
At a legislative listening to about Newsom’s proposal on Wednesday, David Kilgore, director of the California Division of Little one Help Companies, stated the state has had intensive conversations with Colorado officers about their extra expansive coverage.
Kilgore stated that “there’s a number of deserves to the concept” and that “we wish to be there sooner or later in time,” however reiterated the state would “need to make the federal authorities complete” by doing so.
Greg Wilson, government director of the California Little one Help Administrators Assn., known as Newsom’s proposals “actually sturdy family-centered coverage,” however stated the tendency in charge the federal authorities for not doing extra is “a little bit of mythology.”
A invoice that might have absolved states of getting to pay the federal authorities and given low-income dad and mom 100% of kid assist funds failed in Congress in 2020.
“The state may determine to cross all of it via to households, it simply comes with a price ticket,” Wilson stated. “That’s the double-edged sword for California. If Congress ever modified that to make it a greater choice for states, I consider that California would soar on the prospect, completely.”
Politics
Appeals court rules Texas has right to build razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration: 'Huge win'
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that Texas has the right to build a razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration into the Lone Star State.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the ruling on X, saying President Biden was “wrong to cut our razor wire.”
“We continue adding more razor wire border barrier,” the Republican leader wrote.
Wednesday’s 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for Texas to pursue a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of trespassing without having to remove the fencing.
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It also reversed a federal judge’s November 2023 refusal to grant a preliminary injunction to Texas as the state resisted federal efforts to remove fencing along the Rio Grande in the vicinity of Eagle Pass, Texas.
U.S. Border Patrol agents cut an opening through razor wire after immigrant families crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, Sept. 27, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee during the president-elect’s first term, wrote for Wednesday’s majority that Texas was trying only to safeguard its own property, not “regulate” U.S. Border Patrol, and was likely to succeed in its trespass claims.
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Duncan said the federal government waived its sovereign immunity and rejected its concerns that a ruling by Texas would impede the enforcement of immigration law and undermine the government’s relationship with Mexico.
A Venezuelan immigrant asks Texas National Guard troops to let his family pass through razor wire after they crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, Sept. 27, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)
He said the public interest “supports clear protections for property rights from government intrusion and control” and ensuring that federal immigration law enforcement does not “unnecessarily intrude into the rights of countless property owners.”
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton called the ruling a “huge win for Texas.”
“The Biden Administration has been enjoined from damaging, destroying, or otherwise interfering with Texas’s border fencing,” Paxton wrote in a post on X. “We sued immediately when the federal government was observed destroying fences to let illegal aliens enter, and we’ve fought every step of the way for Texas sovereignty and security.”
Migrants attempt to cross the southern border in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in February. (David Peinado/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The White House has been locked in legal battles with Texas and other states that have tried to deter illegal immigration.
In May, the full 5th Circuit heard arguments in a separate case between Texas and the White House over whether the state can keep a 1,000-foot floating barrier on the Rio Grande.
The appeals court is also reviewing a judge’s order blocking a Texas law that would allow state officials to arrest, prosecute and order the removal of people in the country illegally.
Politics
Rep. Katie Porter obtains temporary restraining order against ex-boyfriend on harassment allegations
U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) secured a temporary restraining order Tuesday against a former boyfriend, saying in dozens of pages of court filings that he had bombarded her, as well as her family and colleagues, with hundreds of messages that she described as “persistent abuse and harassment.”
Porter, 50, alleged in a filing with Orange County Superior Court that her ex-boyfriend Julian Willis, 55, was contacting her and her family with such frequency that she had a “significant fear” for her “personal safety and emotional well-being.”
Judge Stephen T. Hicklin signed a restraining order Tuesday barring Willis from communicating with Porter and her children until a mid-December court hearing. He also barred Willis from communicating about Porter with her current and former colleagues.
In the court filing, Porter said that Willis had been hospitalized twice since late 2022 on involuntary psychiatric holds and had a history of abusing prescription painkillers and other drugs.
She said in a statement to The Times that Willis’ mental health and struggles with addiction seemed to have gotten worse since she asked him in August to move out of her Irvine home. She said she sought the court order after his threats to her family and colleagues “escalated in both their frequency and intensity.”
“I sincerely hope he gets the help he needs,” Porter said.
Willis declined to comment. He will have an opportunity to file a legal response to the temporary restraining order and challenge Porter’s allegations.
Porter is leaving the House of Representatives in January after losing in California’s U.S. Senate primary in March. She has been discussed as a front-runner in the 2026 governor’s race in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom is termed out, but has not said whether she will launch a campaign.
The 53-page court filing, first reported by Politico, included 22 pages of emails, text messages and other communications among Porter, family members and colleagues who had received messages from Willis, as well as messages that Willis sent to Porter’s attorney and to her political mentor Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The filing also included messages between herself and Willis’ siblings as they discussed trying to help him during his psychiatric holds and while he was staying in a sober-living facility.
Porter said that since she ordered Willis to move out, he had sent her more than 1,000 text messages and emails, including texting her 82 times in one 24-hour period in September, and 55 times on Nov. 12 before she blocked his number.
Porter said in the filing that her ex-boyfriend had “already contacted at least three reporters to disseminate false and damaging information” about her and her children, which she said “poses a serious risk to [her] career and personal reputation.”
The filing includes an email that Porter said Willis sent to her attorney late Monday, in which Willis said he had visited Porter’s son at college in Iowa and told him that he would “bring the hammer down on Katie and smash her and her life into a million pieces.”
Another screenshot shows Willis telling Porter’s attorney that he would file a complaint about Porter, who has children ages 12 and 16, with child protective services.
One of Porter’s congressional staff members received a text message from Willis saying he would “punish the f—” out of him if he did not agree to “cooperate” with a New York Times reporter and Willis’ attorneys, according to a screenshot included in the court document.
Willis previously made the news in 2021, when he was arrested after a fight that broke out at a Porter town hall at a park in Irvine.
Times staff writer Christopher Goffard contributed to this report.
Politics
Homan taking death threats against him ‘more seriously’ after Trump officials targeted with violent threats
Incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan reacted to news of death threats against Trump nominees on Wednesday and said he now takes the death threats he has previously received seriously.
“I have not taken this serious up to this point,” Homan told Fox News anchor Gillian Turner on “The Story” on Wednesday, referring to previous death threats made against him and his family.
“Now that I know what’s happened in the last 24 hours. I will take it a little more serious. But look, I’ve been dealing with this. When I was the ICE director in the first administration, I had numerous death threats. I had a security detail with me all the time. Even after I retired, death threats continued and even after I retired as the ICE Director. I had U.S. Marshals protection for a long time to protect me and my family.”
Homan explained that what “doesn’t help” the situation is the “negative press” around Trump.
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President Elect Donald Trump, left, and new appointed Tom Homan, right (Getty)
“I’m not in the cabinet, but, you know, I’ve read numerous hit pieces. I mean, you know, I’m a racist and, you know, I’m the father of family separation, all this other stuff. So the hate media doesn’t help at all because there are some nuts out there. They’ll take advantage. So that doesn’t help.”
Homan’s comments come shortly after Fox News Digital first reported that nearly a dozen of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and other appointees tapped for the incoming administration were targeted Tuesday night with “violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” prompting a “swift” law enforcement response.
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Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he arrives to speak at a campaign event at Nassau Coliseum, Wednesday, Sept.18, 2024, in Uniondale, N.Y. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The “attacks ranged from bomb threats to ‘swatting,’” according to Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman and incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” she told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “In response, law enforcement acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted. President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.”
Sources told Fox News Digital that John Ratcliffe, the nominee to be CIA director, Pete Hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the nominee for UN ambassador, were among those targeted. Brooke Rollins, who Trump has tapped to be secretary of agriculture, and Lee Zeldin, Trump’s nominee to be EPA administrator, separately revealed they were also targeted.
Threats were also made against Trump’s Labor Secretary nominee, GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and former Trump attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz’s family.
Republican candidate Donald Trump is seen with blood on his face surrounded by secret service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event at Butler Farm Show Inc. in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2024. Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
Homan told Fox News that he is “not going to be intimidated by these people” and “I’m not going to let them silence me.”
“What I’ve learned today I’ll start taking a little more serious.”
Homan added that he believes “we need to have a strong response once we find out is behind all this.”
“It’s illegal to threaten someone’s life. And we need to follow through with that.”
The threats on Tuesday night came mere months after Trump survived two assassination attempts.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report
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