Asm. Joaquin Arambula (D–Fresno) is pushing for California to offer up to $150,000 in home loans to illegal immigrants.
The California Senate will vote on Arambula’s proposal – Assembly Bill 1840 – this week.
The big picture: AB 1840 would open up the California Dream for All Program to illegal immigrants.
- The Dream for All program, which would be renamed the Home Purchase Assistance Program, provides 20 percent in down payment assistance to first-generation homebuyers who meet CalFFA income limits.
- Under Arambula’s proposal, illegal immigrants with taxpayer ID numbers or Social Security numbers would be eligible for up to $150,000 in down payment assistance.
- AB 1840 would also inflate the candidate pool. There were 18,000 people who applied for the program, with 1,700 ultimately chosen.
Flashback: Unsurprisingly, AB 1840 has been largely split along party lines in the Legislature.
- The Assembly passed it on a 56-15 vote in May, with nine abstentions.
- AB 1840 was also nearly killed earlier this month when it was briefly placed in the suspense file before being taken up by the Senate Appropriations Committee on Aug. 15, where it passed 5-2.
What we’re watching: Even if the Senate passes AB 1840 this week, Gov. Gavin Newsom could choose to kill the proposal in the hope of preventing national outcry against Democrats ahead of the November election.
What they’re saying: “We simply wanted to be as inclusive as possible within our policies so that all who are paying taxes here in our state were able to qualify,” Arambula told POLITICO. “Without the intentional law that we are introducing, we felt that there were complexities and questions that many in the immigrant community would have.”
