ICE agents detained an illegal alien from Ghana convicted on 15 counts for stealing more than $8 million through an online dating fraud scheme targeting the elderly, the Department of Homeland Security told The Daily Wire.  Convicted three years ago in Boston, Massachusetts, for defrauding the elderly through fake dating profiles, ICE agents detained Kofi Ib Osei on Tuesday. Osei was convicted in March 2023 on seven counts of false statement to a bank, six counts of wire fraud, aiding and abetting, and two counts of money laundering.  “Kofi Osei is a criminal illegal alien who committed fraud throughout New England,” Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis told The Daily Wire. “On April 6, 2026, ICE arrested Osei from jail and took him into custody in Virginia. This is why we need local cooperation.” Osei first entered the United States in 2010 and was convicted on March 22, 2023, in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.  The indictment against Osei revealed that he targeted victims across the country, from Florida to California, from 2016 to 2020, through a romance scheme that involved tricking individuals into sending money to bank accounts operated by Osei under fake names. This money was then used for buying cars and other personal items, according to the indictment. To open bank accounts, Osei would use passports from South Africa and Lesotho under various names.  One victim in the indictment included a woman who met Osei on eHarmony under the name “William Karlsen.” They communicated by phone and text, and Osei claimed he needed her to send him money so he could leave the oil rig he claimed to work on to visit her. Eventually, the victim transferred Osei over $200,000, according to the indictment.  A second scheme involved Osei using the name “William Woodcox” and getting money from a woman he targeted on the dating website Plenty of Fish. That victim transferred him around $65,000 to help him after an accident in which he’d claimed to be involved.  In total, the Justice Department said that Osei scammed hundreds of people out of $8 million. He was sentenced to 54 months in prison over the scheme.  Osei was just one of the illegal immigrant criminals arrested this week by ICE.  Others arrested by ICE this week included Pedro Joel Martinez, an illegal alien from El Salvador convicted for aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14-years-old; Miguel Angel Vazquez-Garcia, an illegal alien from Mexico convicted for dealing child pornography in Wilmington, Delaware; Ader Aldair Ramirez-Quiroz, an illegal alien from Honduras convicted for importation of fentanyl in San Diego, California; and Anyeli Carolina Peley-Herrera, an illegal alien from Venezuela convicted for acquisition of personal identification by false authority in Bonneville County, Idaho, according to DHS.  “Yesterday, the heroic men and women of ICE arrested child predators, child rapists, drug traffickers, and other scumbags,” Bis said. “Under President Trump, criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States. If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will hunt you down, arrest you, deport you, and you will never return.”

Imagine that you’re Gavin Newsom. You’re clearly the frontrunner to be the Democrats’ next nominee for president. And in preparation for that role, you’ve done a lot of homework. You’ve gone on Fox News several times for debates with Sean Hannity and Governor Ron DeSantis to hone your skills against the opposition.  You’ve traveled to the Munich Security Conference to make it seem like you understand foreign policy — even though you just awkwardly walk around the lobby and stare at Marco Rubio the entire time. You’ve laughed, or pretended to laugh, at all of the jokes about how you look (and act) like the guy in “American Psycho”. And you’ve even launched a podcast where you sit down with conservatives, including Steve Bannon, so that you come across as a moderate candidate who can carry a conversation with anyone — even the people you’re going to throw in prison, if you ever get the chance. So you’ve gone to great lengths to create a very specific image, for the sole purpose of clearing the field and becoming the undisputed choice of the Democratic Party for president. And then, after all of that effort, imagine that your wife — Jennifer Siebel Newsom — decides to go out in public and attract as much attention as possible. She decides to become the most visible Newsom and go on her own speaking tour, even though she’s not a public official and no one has any reason to care what she thinks. And to make matters worse, she decides that she wants the entire world to know about the time she accidentally killed her sister with a golf cart. And then, without any hesitation whatsoever, Jennifer Newsom states that this golf cart mishap, which she describes as completely unintentional, is totally analogous to the many violent crimes committed by inmates who are currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison. In other words, you’re the leading Democrat presidential candidate, and one day your wife goes out in public and states that criminals in California’s most hardcore prison are guilty of one thing, and one thing only — making the same kind of mistake you did as a child, when you ran over your own sister with a golf cart. Unfortunately for Gavin Newsom, no one has to imagine this nightmare scenario. His wife just went through with it, live on camera. Watch: Gavin Newsom’s wife recalls telling prisoners at San Quentin about running over and killing her sister with a golf cart. She said that she wasn’t punished because it was an accident but that the prisoners are doing life even though theirs was “probably an accident too.” pic.twitter.com/24HqCHXSZh — MAZE (@mazemoore) April 7, 2026 Source: @mazemoore/X.com Gavin Newsom may not be the smartest politician, but even with that handicap in mind, there’s no way he didn’t throw something at the television when he saw this. It’s the single most stereotypical, on-the-nose statement possible, from an affluent white liberal woman. The idea is that criminals — even violent criminals who are incarcerated in California, a state that goes out of its way to allow criminals to do whatever they want — aren’t actually guilty of anything. They don’t have free will. Therefore, they certainly can’t commit any crimes. Instead, they’re like Bob Ross — they just committed “happy little accidents.” There was an episode in that new “Star Trek” show that covered similar territory. And there’s a reason no one — other than liberal wine aunts — watched that show. Sane people don’t infantilize violent criminals, regardless of their mental state. We throw them in prison, forever. But the more I thought about it, the more I wondered about the first part of Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s remarks — where she talks about killing her own sister. I had never heard that story before. So I looked up some background information, and I came across this article from the Los Angeles Times, from a couple of years ago. A few days before her 7th birthday, she and her older sister, Stacey, were playing on golf carts with several other children during a family vacation in Hawaii. Siebel Newsom didn’t see her sister hiding behind her cart when it went backwards, killing the 8-year-old, she said. … The second-eldest of five daughters, Siebel Newsom was raised in a wealthy conservative family in Marin County. Reading that story, I have no reason to doubt that this was, indeed, a horrible accident. I wasn’t there, so it would be hard for me to come up with some other version of events. But at the same time, obviously, something criminal occurred here. It doesn’t matter what seven-year-old Jennifer was trying to do. Put simply, if you allow your seven-year-old to drive a golf cart with so little supervision that she runs over your other child and kills her, then by definition, you’re a negligent parent. The parents’ job is to make sure that something like this never happens. And whether they’re wealthy or not, the same rule should apply. So, at a minimum, we have a case of parental neglect, which, to my knowledge, was never charged. Of course, it’s a horrible story, and it’s the kind of thing I’d rather not talk about. But Jennifer talks about it and uses it to make a political point, and the political point is nothing short of deranged. She wants to release violent criminals onto the public, and she’s using the death of her own sister as a cudgel to drive that point home. The whole thing is unspeakably perverse in every imaginable way. Or maybe Jennifer Siebel Newsom was trying to tell us something here. Maybe she was trying to communicate that, like the violent inmates of San Quentin, she — or her parents — had indeed committed a criminal act, on the day of that fateful golf cart incident. It’s hard to say. But the more I looked into this woman, the more I came to the conclusion that, no, she’s not trying to tell us anything intelligent at all. On the contrary, Jennifer Siebel Newsom possesses an extremely low IQ, coupled with a narcissistic personality. She is, in every respect, an existential threat to Gavin Newsom’s campaign for the presidency. And if they’re smart, Republicans will do exactly what I’m about to do — which is to conduct a deep dive into her history. But before I get into that, I need to play a couple of videos first, from this woman’s recent public appearances. In addition to being entertaining, these clips could help explain why she’s keeping such a high profile. So here’s one video from the other day, where she talks about Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi leaving the Trump administration. Watch: NEW: Gavin Newsom’s wife suggests Pam Bondi was fired because she is a woman, says Trump is declaring “war on all women.” “[Trump’s agenda] is pushing us back into this straitjacket of femininity that is only in service of men,” she said. This woman might single-handedly… pic.twitter.com/HlUmHswUxw — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 4, 2026 Source: @CollinRugg/X.com It’s yet another dumb and insufferable video, which is why it’s making the rounds on X. But I don’t think people on X are the intended audience of this clip. I could be wrong about this, but it seems like Jennifer is putting out this kind of content as part of a deliberate strategy by the Newsom team to appeal to women. It wouldn’t exactly be a stretch — everything about Gavin Newsom’s operation is highly choreographed and calculated. These are extremely cynical and strategic people we’re talking about here. So it seems reasonable to conclude that Newsom’s wife is posting these videos to appeal to women — easily the most Left-wing, radicalized demographic in the electorate. And while conservatives are laughing, liberal women are eating this stuff up. But again, something in the video caught my attention. She’s attacking Donald Trump for sex stuff, or something along those lines. But if you know anything about her own personal history, it comes across as an extremely fake, strained line of argument. As it turns out, Jennifer Siebel Newsom claimed that Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted her in 2005. But she didn’t make that allegation publicly for more than a decade. Instead, she kept up friendly communication with Weinstein. In fact, two years after the alleged rape, in 2007, Newsom’s wife again contacted Weinstein for advice on how to handle a sex scandal involving her then-boyfriend, Gavin Newsom. Watch: After Harvey Weinstein allegedly sexually assaulted her in 2005, Gavin Newsom’s wife contacted Weinstein to meet up and discuss movie roles. In 2007 Newsom’s wife contacted Weinstein to get his advice on how Gavin should handle his own sex scandal.pic.twitter.com/K0L6SUTXRv — MAZE (@mazemoore) February 8, 2026 Source: @mazemoore/X.com This is more than a little suspicious, obviously. If someone sexually assaults you, then you probably aren’t going to reach out to that person two years later, as a friend, seeking advice on behalf of your husband. But Newsom’s wife did that. She did it constantly. This is from The Guardian: Weinstein’s defense attorneys spent hours going through nearly 70 emails Siebel Newsom exchanged with Weinstein in the months and years after the alleged attack. They contrasted her bright tone and multiple requests for in-person business meetings with Weinstein in New York and at film festivals in Toronto and Cannes with her testimony that she had felt fear in her subsequent interactions with Weinstein. … [The defense attorneys] noted her signatures on different emails Weinstein received, including “warm regards” and “xx”, and flagged that she had once responded within eight minutes to an email from Weinstein about finding a time to meet in New York. Siebel Newsom said she simply did not remember sending most of the emails. ‘I send hundreds of thousands of emails to people,’ she testified. So that’s a little unusual. She’s sending extremely friendly messages to Weinstein and hitting him up for campaign contributions after he allegedly attacked her. She also changed some important details of her story, after-the-fact. Her trial testimony was different from her previous interviews. She only surfaced with her final version of the story more than a decade later, at the precise moment it became politically beneficial to claim to be a victim. This is called “reasonable doubt,” and it’s why, after Jennifer Newsom testified against Harvey Weinstein, the jury couldn’t reach a verdict on her claims. Watch: Source: CBS News Sacramento/YouTube.com Again, I can’t take any position on the merits of the allegations. But it’s hard not to suspect we have a Jeffrey Epstein situation here. There’s a horrible guy who’s guilty of several serious crimes. But at the same time, because the guy’s so horrible, it’s a free-fire zone for women to come in, claim they were victims, and receive an endless stream of positive press (and money, in many cases). They’re called “survivors.” And if they happen to have a documentary business, which Newsom’s wife did, then the publicity is obviously a big help. What could have actually happened here — and I don’t know this, but it’s a theory one might formulate — is that Jennifer had a consensual sexual relationship with a repulsive ogre named Harvey Weinstein because she thought it would help her professionally. Then, later, she decided it would help her more professionally to claim that he raped her. That seems like the other possibility, and you might argue that it’s even more plausible. It’s not exactly difficult to imagine Newsom’s wife pulling off a scam like that. As it stands, she uses her business operations — which are supposedly “nonprofits” — to enrich herself. This is reporting from The Daily Mail. IRS documents from recent years show Gavin Newsom’s wife has been paying herself and her company, Girls Club LLC, up to a third of her nonprofit’s entire income each year – pocketing over $3.7 million from 2012 to 2023, the nonprofit’s most recent figures. Siebel Newsom, 51, runs the Representation Project, a charity that fights against ‘intersectional gender stereotypes’ and ‘harmful gender norms’. The organization brings in between $1 million and $1.7 million a year in grants and donations, with roughly $300,000 of it going straight to her and her company in recent years, according to financial records. If you look into other nonprofits in the state, almost none of them work like this. Around 95% of the charities and nonprofits in the state, which are comparable in size to Jennifer Newsom’s, pay their executives less than this. That’s according to an analysis conducted by The Daily Mail. So she’s making an awful lot for a “nonprofit.” So who exactly is paying her millions of dollars to “fight against intersectional gender stereotypes”? They couldn’t possibly be large institutions that are seeking to garner favor with her husband, the governor of the state, could they? Let’s read on. The article continues: Ethics questions have been repeatedly raised over the hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to the charity by companies which then received millions in California taxpayer money. … AT&T donated $185,000 to the Rep Project from 2017 through 2020, and received $260 million from the state of California in 2021. The company also gave $100,000 to Newsom’s inauguration fund in 2019 and executive Ken McNeely gave $10,000 to the governor’s campaign in 2018. Media firm Comcast donated $15,000 over the same period and received $20 million, while healthcare company Kaiser Permanente donated $20,000 in 2018 and 2019 and received $172 million. By itself, this should disqualify Gavin Newsom from ever holding elected office. Everyone knows his wife runs a useless charity. They just throw a bunch of buzzwords around. And there’s no reason for this charity to receive massive donations from telecommunications companies and Big Pharma, unless those companies are trying to buy favors from the administration. It’s utterly corrupt. These people are simply too dumb to hide it. That’s why, if they get into office, they’ll do what the Biden administration did: They’ll lock down social media. Newsom’s wife has admitted that her plan — and her husband’s plan, by extension — is to censor Americans (and in particular, children) who might become Right-wing. Watch: Gavin Newscum’s wife casually admits that she would censor free speech if women like her were in charge of social media. “I don’t think we would have… or have allowed for so much bigotry, racism, misogyny, and hate online.”pic.twitter.com/eXqr1lHCS9 — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 6, 2026 Source: @libsoftiktok/X.com Gavin Newsom’s wife: we have to use the powers of government to stop boys from becoming right wing pic.twitter.com/S8ewWvv0qj — captive dreamer (@captive_dreamer) April 6, 2026 Source: @captive_dreamer/X.com It’s all very reminiscent of the NPR CEO, who you may have forgotten about. She delivered this infamous line in one of her TED Talks, in which she says the truth isn’t really that important. What’s necessary, she says, is “consensus.” Watch: “I think our reverence for the truth might have become a bit of a distraction that is preventing us from finding consensus and getting important things done.” — Katherine Maher (NPR CEO) pic.twitter.com/nCfDcyPJjf — The Rabbit Hole (@TheRabbitHole) April 6, 2026 Source: @TheRabbitHole/X.com This is why Gavin Newsom and his wife would happily ban you from all social media and throw you in prison if you dare to say that a man can’t really become a woman. Sure, you might be telling the truth. But the truth doesn’t matter to women like this. What matters is that everyone “gets along” — that is, everyone who agrees with her. Everyone else must be silenced. That’s why, if you’re a parent, and your child flees to California to undergo life-altering castration and gender mutilation, then Gavin Newsom’s California will take custody of your child. They’ll call you a bigot while they destroy your child’s life. What I find interesting about the Newsoms is that they both relentlessly promote liberal, leftist ideologies that are corrosive to family formation and undermine traditional values. However, at the same time, they’ve been in a heterosexual marriage for roughly 20 years and have four children together. By those measures, they are more “trad” in terms of their own lifestyle than most Americans — even a lot of conservatives aren’t married with four kids. Of course, Gavin Newsom is on his second marriage, and his wife has the Weinstein stuff in her past, but in terms of their current relationship, at some level, it has more of the hallmarks of a traditional marriage than many other politicians’ marriages. What that tells me is that the Newsoms know that the traditional family model is the best. They could have chosen any other lifestyle, but they chose to have a family. But as elites, they still promote insidious ideologies that end up harming the ordinary people who listen to them. It’s a perfect illustration of “luxury beliefs.” And it’s also why, despite what you may have gathered, I truly believe that Gavin Newsom’s wife is awesome. Without irony, I really think she’s an incredible woman, for one reason: She’s the perfect feminist. Not only because she’s constantly out babbling about how men are evil, but also because her husband is trying to achieve something great (becoming president), and she is determined to put herself at the center of the story and absolutely destroy his dream in the process. If Newsom’s presidential ambitions are dashed, his wife will be one of the primary reasons. It’s great. A very instructive cautionary tale for young men. Never marry a feminist. She will ruin your life. Guaranteed.

Prosecutors plan to issue a subpoena later this month to the Palm Beach, Florida, pharmacy used by Tiger Woods as they seek more information on the medications prescribed to the legendary golfer and whether they included any warnings about driving. Prosecutors in Martin County, Florida, said in a court filing that they will issue a subpoena to Lewis Pharmacy on April 22 as they seek to find out if the drugs included a warning about “operating a motor vehicle while taking the prescription,” The New York Post reported. Two hydrocodone pills were found on Woods when he was arrested after crashing into a truck and trailer in South Florida in late March. He was subsequently charged with DUI and property damage. The subpoena will seek records on Woods’ medication from January 1 to March 27, the date of the crash. Prosecutors are seeking information on the “date and time prescription was filled, type of prescription, number of pills in each prescription, the dosage amount, and all special instructions,” according to the Post. The golfer’s defense team has 10 days to object to the subpoena. A breathalyzer test showed no alcohol in Woods’ system, but a deputy described him as “lethargic and slow,” with “bloodshot and glassy” eyes and “extremely dilated” pupils, according to the arrest affidavit. “So at this time, I do believe your normal faculties are impaired,” one of the deputies told Woods as she placed handcuffs on him, bodycam footage shows. “And you’re under the unknown substance, so at this time, you’re under arrest for DUI.” Woods clipped the trailer of a truck as he attempted to pass it, flipping his SUV in a residential area in Jupiter, Florida. The golfing legend told deputies that he was distracted and had looked down at his phone before the crash. Woods also told deputies that he takes “a few” prescription medications. Hydrocodone, which is typically taken to treat severe pain, is classified as a Schedule II controlled substance by the U.S. government. The drug is considered to be among “some of the most addictive and potentially dangerous prescription medications available.” Hydrocodone is also among the drugs that the Food and Drug Administration warns “could make driving dangerous.” Woods has dealt with severe back injuries throughout his career and was involved in a serious single car crash in Los Angeles in 2021. Woods pleaded not guilty to the DUI charge and one count of refusing to submit to a lawful test after he told deputies he would not go along with a urine test. Woods said last week that he is “stepping away for a period of time to seek treatment and focus on my health.”

The suspect in a brutal killing outside a Fort Myers, Florida, gas station has been captured, becoming another statistic in the national immigration debate, after federal officials confirmed the suspect had been released into the United States and later shielded from deportation. Rolbert Joachim, a Haitian national, is accused of murdering Nilufa Easmin, known to friends and family as Yasmeen, by bludgeoning her with a hammer outside the Chevron station where she worked. The attack, captured on surveillance video, unfolded in broad daylight. This criminal illegal alien from Haiti BARBARICALLY MURDERED an innocent woman by hitting her in the head multiple times with a hammer. He was RELEASED into our nation by the Biden administration. Not only did they release this heinous murderer into our communities, but they… https://t.co/vbIKRNiIgx pic.twitter.com/P6NgTzCUQy — Homeland Security (@DHSgov) April 7, 2026 According to the Department of Homeland Security, Joachim first entered the U.S. in August 2022 and was “caught and released” at the border. Later that same year, an immigration judge issued a final order of removal against him. But instead of being deported, DHS says he was allowed to remain in the country under Temporary Protected Status, which expired in 2024. “This illegal alien barbarically hit this woman in the head multiple times with a hammer,” said Acting DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “This heinous murderer was released into the country by the Biden administration. Not only did the administration release him, but they then gave him temporary protected status. Their reckless immigration policies cost this woman her life.” Surveillance footage shows Joachim allegedly smashing a car windshield in the gas station parking lot. That vehicle, according to coworkers, belonged to Easmin. Moments later, she walked outside to confront him. He then rushed toward her and struck her in the head with a hammer. She collapsed, and investigators say he struck her repeatedly again. Police launched an intensive manhunt, ultimately locating Joachim nearby. “I would just say one word — persistence,” a Fort Myers police official said. “We were not going home until we found him. We had a cop on every single block in the last confirmed area, and we used every resource — from aviation support to canine units to boots on the ground.” Joachim is now in custody and being held without bond. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed a detainer on him, and DHS says he will be deported following the resolution of his case. Neighbors described her as kind, devout, and consistent in her daily routine. “She was good,” said M.D. Islam, a local man who knew her. “She came and did her prayer in the morning … just minutes before the attack.” “Everybody right now is sad,” Islam added. “Not only me or my Bangladeshi community — all of us. People around the world are very sad to see this news.” A growing memorial now sits outside the gas station on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Highland Avenue, where flowers and candles mark the place where Easmin was killed. But alongside mourning, the case is raising broader questions, particularly about how an individual ordered deported was able to remain in the country. According to DHS, Joachim’s case reflects a wider system that has relied on release mechanisms and temporary protections rather than immediate removal. An immigration judge had already determined Joachim should be removed, yet he remained in the country for years after that order, long enough, tragically, for the April 3 killing to occur. For neighbors like Islam, the policy debate is secondary to the senselessness of the violence. “I don’t know why some people become like this,” he said. “I cannot explain.”

This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars. In this piece, originally published in City Journal, Christopher Rufo and Kenneth Schrupp investigate California’s IHSS home-care program, arguing that weak oversight has allowed massive fraud while politically connected unions profit from its expansion. * * * California Governor Gavin Newsom is embroiled in a national fraud scandal. Thus far, much of the coverage has focused on alleged schemes related to unemployment insurance, hospice care, and food stamps. In this exclusive investigation, we shine a light on one of California’s largest initiatives: the In-Home Supportive Services Program, or IHSS, which pays family members and other individuals to provide home-based care for the elderly and disabled — at a cost of nearly $30 billion per year. On the surface, IHSS presents itself as an instrument of compassion, directing billions to caregivers who help with cooking, personal care, laundry, and other daily needs inside recipients’ homes. But a growing number of experts and critics argue that the program is rife with fraud, losing roughly an estimated $6 billion to $12 billion yearly to scammers. Meantime, the state’s powerful home-care unions collect more than $149 million in membership dues, funneling money into the political network supporting Newsom and California Democrats. This is the story of a government that has allowed compassion to become a mask for fraud, creating a self-reinforcing system that keeps the Democratic establishment in power. In 1973, California created what became the IHSS program to provide in-home care to the elderly and disabled. The IHSS caseload exploded in the 1980s, prompting the state to impose hour caps on care providers. California offers the program through Medi-Cal, its version of Medicaid, and pays providers with a combination of federal, state, and county funds. IHSS has long been considered a magnet for fraud. In 2009, then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger estimated that up to 25 percent of IHSS claims were fraudulent. A Sacramento grand jury report that year found that providers had “no meaningful oversight, no assessment of skills to meet client needs, no monitoring of the validity of service hours, and no background checks.” After growth of the program’s rolls exploded in the early 2000s, Schwarzenegger signed legislation aimed at curbing abuse, requiring IHSS providers to undergo criminal background checks and introducing random claim reviews. But soon after the law’s passage, a state workgroup, teaming with representatives from “labor organizations,” introduced a key loophole. Citing concerns about disruptions for “vulnerable members of the IHSS community,” the task force barred regulators from conducting fully randomized, unannounced home visits, leaving the program more exposed to scammers. Since then, the program has expanded dramatically again. “IHSS provider” has become the largest low-wage occupation statewide, with more than 800,000 taxpayer-funded caregivers offering everything from grocery shopping to personal care. Applying for IHSS care is straightforward. First, a prospective beneficiary files a California Department of Social Services application. Second, a county social worker visits his home to determine his need for care. Third, the county or public authority reviews the application and, if it approves, designates the applicant as a beneficiary, who can then use taxpayer funds to hire the caregiver of his choice — in more than 70 percent of cases, a direct family member. The system operates largely on trust. Providers self-report their timecards and check-in records. In roughly 60 percent of cases, providers and beneficiaries live together, delivering care in private homes — typically without the threat of random, unannounced visits. County-level fraud controls appear to be lacking. State regulations prevent IHSS staff from making unannounced visits unless a whistleblower files a “specific” complaint or regulators identify clear red flags. Even when complaints are lodged, investigations apparently can be slow, and prosecutions slower still. According to the state’s Department of Social Services, for one 12-month period between 2023 and 2024, counties received nearly 7,000 fraud complaints; 28 counties recorded 964 fraud investigations, resulting in just 39 cases prosecuted. County-level regulators face additional problems. A 2021 Riverside County audit claimed that the local IHSS program did “not adhere to review and approval procedures for program integrity referrals.” In addition, more than 60 percent of county staff at the Department of Public Social Services, which, according to the auditor, handles program oversight, were IHSS providers themselves — meaning they had an interest in maintaining the status quo. California, in other words, is sending billions of dollars per year to a program that is easy to exploit, difficult to administer, and almost impossible to supervise. In 2024, the federal government began a series of enforcement actions. As part of a nationwide crackdown on health-care-related crimes, the United States Department of Justice announced prosecutions for alleged IHSS fraud in California. In one case, the DOJ alleged that San Dimas resident Giacomo Lorenzo Garbarino billed the state for more than $170,000 in fraudulent IHSS and Medi-Cal services over a five-year period. The patient in his care was reportedly hospitalized or living in a facility at the time and thus ineligible for IHSS reimbursement. In another case, Joseph Depiazza allegedly billed the state for more than $50,000 in fraudulent IHSS services. According to prosecutors, he kept submitting claims after the patient entered the hospital — and even after she had died. Last year, federal officials announced another round of IHSS fraud prosecutions. In one case, prosecutors alleged that Maryam Erambakhsh falsely claimed payments for caring for her parents while they were outside the United States. In another, Cindy Lynn Fromm allegedly billed the program for more than a year of services while the recipient was incarcerated. These cases may be the tip of the iceberg. Haywood Talcove, CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions for Government and a nationally recognized fraud expert, estimates that annual IHSS fraud could amount to 20 percent to 40 percent of total program spending. Applied to projected IHSS outlays for fiscal year 2025–26, that suggests roughly $6 billion to $12 billion in losses. Multiple senior officials at the Department of Health and Human Services have described a similar pattern, estimating that about 25 percent of the Medi-Cal budget is lost to fraud. The share is likely higher for IHSS, given the program’s structure and its susceptibility to abuse. Earlier this year, Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, set off a firestorm of controversy with the claim that criminal networks, including the “Russian Armenian mafia,” were running massive hospice and home care scams in Los Angeles. He suggested that Armenians in Los Angeles were disproportionately represented among the leaders of hospice fraud rings. One red flag for social-services fraud, Talcove suggested, is high community usage rates, and Armenian speakers in Los Angeles do appear to be significantly overrepresented among the county’s IHSS providers and recipients. Armenian speakers represent 14.6 percent of IHSS recipients and 6.5 percent of IHSS caregivers, per state data. People who speak Armenian fluently and English less than “very well,” however, make up just 0.8 percent of L.A. County’s population, according to Census data. Assuming that these Armenian speakers are identical to self-reported Armenian speakers in IHSS data, Armenian speakers who speak English less than “very well” are 18 times more likely to be IHSS recipients and eight times likelier to be IHSS caregivers than their share of the county population would suggest. These high utilization rates do not, on their own, prove fraud. But analysts such as Talcove argue that “organized criminal groups” are “taking advantage of the program at scale.” Using a conservative 25 percent fraud estimate — within Talcove’s range and consistent with HHS officials’ broader Medi-Cal assessments — scammers may have siphoned at least $35 billion from IHSS during Gavin Newsom’s administration. “There’s virtually no incentive for them to stop,” Talcove said. “California has limited to no controls in place.” Perhaps the biggest beneficiaries of California’s IHSS program are labor unions, which have enrolled more than 600,000 IHSS providers. Two leading unions for the state’s in-home care workforce, SEIU Local 2015 and United Domestic Workers (UDW), collectively raked in more than $149 million in dues in 2024. Both have a direct stake in the program’s expansion, since every new IHSS worker is a potential dues-paying member. These unions are some of the most powerful institutions in California politics and collectively send millions of dollars to the state’s Democratic establishment. SEIU Local 2015 contributed $2 million to Newsom’s anti-recall campaign; spent another $2 million in favor of Proposition 50, a measure to redraw the state’s congressional districts in favor of Democrats; and donated over $90,000 to Newsom across his two campaign years. UDW donated $20,000 to Newsom’s 2022 reelection campaign. Both unions have contributed heavily to Democrats. SEIU Local 2015 and United Domestic Workers of America have also allegedly used coercive tactics to expand their membership. Nathan Vu, a caregiver in San Diego, says that UDW pressured him to join during his IHSS orientation in February 2024. Though he says he declined, the union allegedly began deducting dues from his paycheck anyway. “I vividly remember not wanting to enroll in the union,” Vu said. “I specifically said no.” Vu says he told UDW to stop deducting dues and demanded that they provide a copy of his membership agreement and proof of authorization. UDW, he claims, provided neither and kept deducting dues for a full year before terminating his membership. UDW did not respond to our request for comment. SEIU 2015, which claims to represent “thousands of long-term care workers,” has allegedly one-upped UDW. According to one former member, the group locked IHSS workers in a room and “coerced” at least one to become a member. In a sworn statement filed as part of a lawsuit against the union, Chaquan May alleges that, in September 2023, the union “coerced” her into signing up for a membership at an IHSS orientation. May claimed that union employees locked the doors and told her and the other new IHSS providers, “we’re waiting for everyone to sign … no one is leaving until everyone signs.” May claimed to have signed under duress. On September 3, 2024, she alleged, the union began deducting dues. She claimed to have sent a certified-mail opt-out letter the following day, which the union allegedly ignored. SEIU Local 2015, which did not respond to our request for comment, allegedly continued deducting dues from her paycheck until at least April 2025. Unfortunately for May and other allegedly mistreated IHSS workers, these disputes between public employees and their unions are handled by the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). Each of the board’s five members is appointed by the governor, and three of the current members have former union ties. “The Public Employment Relations Board is run by former union officials,” said Shella Alcabes, a lawyer representing May and other plaintiffs. “You think I’m going to get a fair hearing there? Absolutely not.” The system itself seems designed to prevent accountability. Governor Newsom is responsible for all the main components of the IHSS operation: he oversees the program, the enforcement, and, effectively, the Public Employment Relations Board. He has no incentive to crack down on a program that is enriching his most powerful allies, and, according to coauthor Schrupp’s reporting, is responsible for more than 40 percent of the net jobs created during his administration. And so, the system expands. Despite making some initial noise about reforming the program last year, for this upcoming budget season, Governor Newsom has sought to increase IHSS funding by an additional $1.1 billion, to a total of $33.4 billion, boasting that his administration has invested billions of state taxpayer dollars into the program. (When we reached out to Newsom’s office for this story, a California Department of Social Services spokesman said that “[f]raud in the IHSS program is not widespread.”) Given these political realities, the only plausible check on IHSS may come from Washington. The Trump administration could condition federal funding on rigorous audits and structural reforms. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could require California to mandate re-registration of all caregivers and recipients using third-party identity verification and expand random, unannounced visits. Absent such intervention, the corruption in California is unlikely to abate. It will take a countervailing authority — willing to confront not only fraudsters but also the political system that sustains them — to force meaningful change. * * * Christopher F. Rufo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and the author of America’s Cultural Revolution. Kenneth Schrupp is an investigative reporter at City Journal.