California expects to spend 28 times more on health benefits for illegal aliens than on state police in the 2025-2026 budget period.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s final budget allocates $348 million to law enforcement, while the state’s own budget experts, in an October report, estimate the tab for giving full health benefits to illegal aliens amounts to $10 billion. The new report by the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) reveals a 35% higher figure than the $7.4 billion cost Newsom estimated in his January 2025 budget proposal.
This is what socialism looks like. But is this what the Bible is talking about when it instructs us to "welcome the stranger?"
I'll be talking more about this matter in California, and the results of New York City's mayoral election on our live radio program this morning.
Be informed, not misled.
California’s joint state-federal Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, provides comprehensive coverage for doctor’s visits, medications, and dental and vision care for 1.7 million illegal aliens, who represent 11% of the program’s enrollees, according to the LAO report. Illegal immigrants’ health benefits will consume a fourth of the Medi-Cal money flowing from state coffers, according to the Daily Caller.
Although Newsom claims he supports law enforcement, amid a battle in Congress over health spending for illegal immigrants and in the courts over President Donald Trump’s National Guard deployments to Los Angeles and other cities to protect Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) facilities amid a surge in threats, the statistic provides another illustration of the blue state’s priorities.
The Daily Caller article goes in-depth into how Newsom is trying to tie his socialist goals together without enough money to do so.
It's very informative. It's a profile of socialism: Lies, double speak, virtue signaling, and instability.
The Bible describes it like this: "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways."
Newsom is also trying to position himself to become the next President of the United States.
What does the Bible actually say about the "Stranger?"
The Judeo-Christian tradition teaches us that, regarding the nations, God has “determined … the boundaries of their dwelling” (Acts 17:26). A nation without borders is no nation at all.
I believe in walls if needed to protect our borders. That is not anti-Christian or anti-Biblical.
President Biden was well on his way to destroying America as we have known it, by intentionally opening our borders, welcoming some of the most dangerous criminals on Earth to literally walk into America and live off the bounty of God's blessings with no accountability.
Our borders and our hearts are hardly closed to Mexicans who are willing to play by the rules and knock on the front door rather than sneak through the back door.
Leviticus 19:33 says, "When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong."
The Leftists believe that deporting lawbreakers qualifies as mistreatment.
But upholding the law is not mistreatment. We do no wrong to the shoplifter by holding him accountable for his behavior. In fact, enforcing the law is how the government shows compassion for crime victims. Compassion is misdirected if it is targeted toward lawbreakers rather than victims.
We are a nation of laws, not of men, a tradition rooted in both the Old and New Testaments. “One law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you,” according to Moses in Numbers 15:16. Both the native and the immigrant are to be held equally accountable before the law.
Consider this:
The religious left's favorite Scripture to support their position is usually Leviticus 19:33-34: "And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt."
Exodus 23:9 reminds us we know how a stranger feels, "For you lived as strangers in the land of Egypt."
Clearly, anyone of Judeo-Christian faith, when they read that passage, would want to do the right thing regarding the "stranger" in our land.
The religious left has built an open borders movement off that Scripture and a couple of others that they feel support open borders.
The key question is, "Who is the stranger?"
The religious left argues that a stranger is any foreigner who immigrates, including those who broke the law.
"Welcome the stranger" is now the banner for the religious left in their advocacy of, essentially, open borders. And it's always linked with "compassion."
The Bible clearly defines a stranger as "a man of non-Israelite birth, resident in the promised land with the permission of the Israelite authorities." Your Bible dictionary will lead you to these verses.
So a stranger in Israel was an immigrant who was in the country with permission. Our founding immigration laws were based on Judeo-Christian principles.
When a stranger is mentioned in the Bible, it always refers to a legal alien, not an illegal one---as in Leviticus 19:33-34.
Borders were important in the most ancient biblical times. When Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, he asked permission each time he crossed a border and entered a new land. When he was denied permission to enter, he changed course and took a different route.
About 2000 years before Christ, Egypt was an oasis of prosperity and opportunity, much like the United States is today. It was a magnet for migrants suffering from climate or economic difficulties. When famine struck the land of Canaan, Abraham, for example, turned to Egypt for relief (Genesis 12:10).
Egypt didn't appreciate the surge at their borders because it included hostile marauders and foreign barbarians, which they deemed a threat to their country.
In Genesis 12, we see the story in which Abraham lied to the authorities, claiming his wife was his sister, and they expelled him from Egypt. And Abraham complied with the authorities. He did not try to sneak back in.
In Hebrew, the Bible uses two different words to define a "foreigner" and an "alien." A foreigner was a person from another land, such as a tourist or businessman, who was only in the country temporarily with permission.
An alien was a person from another land who planned to take up residence, again with the permission of the host country.
When Abraham's great-grandson Joseph wanted to bring his father and brothers to Egypt during another great famine, he had to get permission from Pharaoh. Even though he held a high government position, Joseph himself was not Egyptian. He was a guest — a foreigner—and could not legally bring his family into the land.
When Joseph's brothers returned, they appealed to Pharaoh again (Gen. 47:4-6) to allow them to live in the land of Goshen.
Takeaway
God has called us to a life of compassion and charity, and to help the poor.
Nowhere in the Bible are we instructed to remove the security of borders.
Compassion and charity do not require us to look the other way when someone breaks the law, nor do they demand that we deconstruct our nation.
As the apostle Paul says in Romans 13:1, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.” It’s extremely problematic from a Judeo-Christian view to guarantee citizenship to those whose first act on American soil is to break the law.
Too many in the Christian community want to reward aliens who break the law---calling it "compassion," rather than lawlessness.
The Founders were guided by a profound respect for the values and standards of the Judeo-Christian tradition. It was their guiding light then, and should be ours today.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Bold. Be Prayerful.