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Illegal immigrants in California could soon be eligible for tens of thousands of dollars in down payment assistance under a new law sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

On Wednesday, Democrats in the state legislature passed Assembly Bill 1840 requiring the California Housing Finance Authority’s “Dream for All Program,” which provides residents financial assistance to purchase homes, to consider applications from illegal immigrants. The program offers first-time homebuyers loan assistance of up to 20 percent of a property’s value with a cap of $150,000. Buyers then pay back the loan plus up to 20 percent of any property appreciation depending on income.

Lawmakers passed the changes to the program to include illegal immigrants along party lines Wednesday night.

California Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher slammed the bill in a statement.

“I didn’t know it was possible to make the border crisis and the housing crisis worse with just one vote,” the assembly leader said. “But Democrats found a way. Giving taxpayer-funded housing subsidies to illegal immigrants will drive costs even higher and encourage more chaos at the border. This is crazy and it needs to stop.”

According to Newsweek, Newsom “hasn’t indicated his support for the program.”

California is ranked among the worst states for housing as the nation copes with a coast-to-coast shortage as Americans increasingly struggle to find affordable homes to purchase. According to Zillow, the U.S. was short of more than 4.5 million homes in 2022, with Los Angeles, San Francisco, Riverside, San Diego, Sacramento, and San Jose each within the top 50 major metropolitan areas facing the highest housing deficits.

The crisis at the southern border has only added heightened stress to an already thin housing market with few opportunities for affordable home ownership. More than 10 million illegal immigrants have crossed under President Joe Biden, competing with American residents looking for properties to buy or rent. A tax-funded group in Oregon is already offering non-citizen homebuyers $30,000 for down payments.

Politicians in both parties have begun to target federal land as an avenue to address the housing crisis. Vast acreages opened up for new settlement have historically served an expanding nation’s housing needs, but in recent decades far-left lawmakers have obstructed efforts to open public property to new development while Americans flock to major cities.

Republicans on Capitol Hill have proposed legislation to allow the sale of federal property to state and local governments to embark on home construction. While Democrats welcome the opportunity to build new homes on federal land, the proposals backed by the incumbent administration are restricted to crowded urban spaces within pre-existing development zones. The Biden White House has been resistant to the development of federal property for anything other than the creation of quasi-national parks kept off limits to resource use through the 1906 Antiquities Act.

Biden has made shutting down 30 percent of the nation’s land and waterways from resource development by 2030 a hallmark goal of the administration. The aggressive land campaign provoked a recent lawsuit from Republicans in Utah to allow states claim jurisdiction over unappropriated lands within their borders, some of which could be used to build the 4.5 million houses that the United States is short.

Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.