the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Sep 15, 2025
California has shut the doors of Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for low-income residents, to undocumented immigrants. California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom demanded this cut in his budget proposal last May, and the Democratic majority in the state legislature passed it in late June.
Starting in 2026, undocumented immigrants will not be allowed to enroll in Medi-Cal; and as of 2027, those who are already enrolled will have to pay 30 dollars a month. But it’s not only undocumented immigrants. The state is eliminating dental coverage for ALL non-citizens as of July 2026.
This is a quick U-turn by California Democrats who, only last year, had opened Medi-Cal to all of the state’s low-income residents, regardless of immigration status. Newsom, who is likely to run for president, had used it to present himself as the answer to Trump and his cruel attack on immigrant workers.
Newsom and his fellow Democrats now say they have no choice because the state is running a big budget deficit. But in that same budget, the Democrats more than doubled the state’s tax credit to the film industry, to 750 million dollars a year. And Newsom says he wants to carry on with the California Delta tunnel project — the digging of a 45-mile underground river — which will cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.
Both are big gifts to big business — to big movie studios and big agricultural companies. And that’s where the Democrats’ fake compassion for immigrant workers stops — or any workers, for that matter.
It’s nothing new. When in office, Democrats, like Republicans, have always attacked immigrant workers. Barack Obama still holds the record for deporting most immigrants. Joe Biden shut the border to asylum seekers — desperate families escaping violence in their home countries, that is. And it was Bill Clinton who, in the 1990s, made deportations easier. Clinton also sealed off urban border crossings, forcing immigrants into the vast, deadly desert, where thousands of people have died trying to cross the border.
U.S. immigration policy has always been bipartisan. Republicans and Democrats have both criminalized and terrorized immigrant workers, so that businesses can more easily impose lower wages on immigrant workers — and eventually on all workers.