Activists Seek End to $640M Calif. Welfare Program for Illegals

Monday, July 13, 2009 11:53 AM

By: Dave Eberhart

Activists in California are pushing for a ballot initiative that would end public benefits for illegal immigrants and terminate welfare payments for their children, according to a report in The Los Angeles Times.

Organizers have kicked-off a drive to gather the 488,000 voter signatures required to qualify the measure for the June 2010 election. It has been a slow start, however, with only $350,000 in the war chest. Typically, statewide initiatives consume about $4 million at the signature-collecting phase.

Supporters of the initiative further want to challenge the citizenship of children born in the United States to parents who are here illegally, San Diego political activist Ted Hilton told the Times.

Hilton argued that the 14th Amendment states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside.â€