Imagine the ads for LA’s new free money scheme.
Are you an illegal alien in Los Angeles too afraid to leave your home because ICE may find and arrest you, but you still need money for cigarettes? Fear not! The City of Los Angeles has you covered with Bass Bucks for Bad Hombres featuring free money and food deliveries.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced a plan Friday to reinstitute the “Angeleno Card,” a debit card loaded with money that was handed out to low-income households during Covid. Now, it will be given to people affected by ICE agents arresting illegal aliens and placing them in detention or deportation proceedings.
“You have people who don’t want to leave their homes — who are not going to work, and they are in need of cash,” Bass said, offering an example of a household that needs two-incomes to make rent, but one income is gone because an illegally present breadwinner was detained by ICE. Bass said the program is funded through “philanthropic partners” that have contributed to the plan.
By that logic, Los Angeles should give money to every family who has a loved one in prison, or cash for people too afraid to leave their home and face the terrible traffic on Interstate 405.
Cash is just one perk of harboring or being an illegal alien.
“We’re organizing food deliveries. I mean, there’s all sorts of things that we are having to do now to protect people from the federal government,” Bass said.
What’s next? Free mobile pedicure units?
Every time Bass talks about “protecting people from the federal government,” she signals that the city is complicit in obstructing ICE from carrying out its lawful mission.
Details on Bass Bucks have not been ironed out yet. On Friday, Bass said the program would start “next week,” and the cards would provide, “A couple of hundred dollars, I don’t know the exact amount.” It is also not clear how often a recipient can get their card refilled.
Bass Bucks will be given to nonprofits involved in the immigrant communities, and those nonprofits will be in charge of distributing the money. These nonprofits “participated in the content” of an executive directive unveiled Friday that will teach city workers how to respond to ICE agents on city property.
“They know their constituents,” Bass said of the nonprofits. But nonprofits don’t have constituents, elected officials do. No one elected the nonprofits, or their agendas, yet Bass is allowing them to run the show.
Leaders of the following nonprofits spoke at the press conference: Salvadoran American Leadership and Educational Fund (SALEF); the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA); and AAPI Equity Alliance.
At some point, people need to be accountable for their bad life decisions. Enter the U.S. illegally? Time to go home. Enjoy the $1,000 cash and free airplane ticket from the American people. Had children with an illegal alien? An attorney should have been involved before any babies were born. When people make their lives complicated, it is not the government’s job to solve their problems. When the government offers temporary solutions, it deprives people of the motivation needed to make tough decisions that move them forward in life.
Making people dependent on government money is a socialist idea. The only reason Bass Bucks is currently funded by donors is likely because the mayor knows the plan is too controversial for public funds. But it goes to show, when motivated, she can pull money out of the sky.
Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.
