Calif. Wildfire Relief Fund Diverted $14 Million Toward Managing Anti-ICE Riots
2nd June 2026
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wildfire relief fund, created to help victims of the January 2025 Los Angeles-area fires rebuild their lives, spent millions of dollars on unrelated public safety operations, including crowd-control efforts during anti-deportation demonstrations later that year, according to newly released California Department of Finance records cited by the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.
State financial documents show that $12.8 million from the Los Angeles Wildfire Response and Recovery Fund was used to cover costs associated with deploying California Highway Patrol officers to monitor and police protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in downtown Los Angeles during the summer of 2025.
I guess California has a more liberal (yuk, yuk) deminition of ‘wild life’ than most.