Trump probe into Calif. program for elderly, disabled legal immigrants attacks ‘most vulnerable,’ groups say

A federal investigation into a state program providing monthly cash benefits to elderly and disabled noncitizens legally present in the U.S. is raising alarms among immigrant rights groups in California, who say the probe unfairly attacks the community’s “most vulnerable people” at a time when immigration authorities are working to deliver on President Donald Trump’s campaign promise of mass deportations.

The Department of Homeland Security said Monday it has launched an investigation into the California Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants to see if ineligible undocumented immigrants received federal benefits from the Social Security Administration over the past four years.

But no federal funds go toward the state assistance program and undocumented immigrants are not eligible to participate, Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, or CHIRLA, told NBC News on Tuesday.

Salas is one of the immigration advocates who helped make the state cash assistance program a reality almost 30 years ago. She said the state program was established after Clinton-era welfare reforms excluded most noncitizens from receiving Supplemental Security Income, a federal benefit from the Social Security Administration that provides monthly payments to qualifying elderly and disabled people.

In response, California created its own version of the program to provide state aid to immigrants legally present in the U.S. who are not eligible for the federal version of the program. These include legal permanent residents or green-card holders, asylees, humanitarian parolees and individuals permanently residing under color of law as well as victims of human trafficking and domestic violence, according to the California Immigrant Policy Center, an immigrant rights organization.

“Undocumented people are not eligible for the program,” Salas said, adding that the DHS investigation has “no merit because it’s a legal immigrant program.”

As part of the probe, DHS issued a wide-ranging subpoena requesting records that include information of program participants such as applicants’ name and date of birth, copies of applications, immigration status, proof of ineligibility for benefits from the Social Security Administration and affidavits that supported the application.

Salas said that by targeting immigrant families, regardless of status, the Trump administration is “scraping at every single place where they can get data that could somehow…