California does give financial aid to undocumented/illegal immigrants, so verification can be difficult and touchy subject:

https://www.csac.ca.gov/college-financial-aid-and-safety-for...

If they truly don't have any means to verify that the person receiving the grant is who they think it is, this sounds broken by design.

Say that in certain political circles and you’re liable to get berated

People in those circles generally believe that college education should just be free for all residents. Which is an internally consistent position, since if everyone is eligible, there's no need for verification. It's specifically the programs that restrict eligibility that don't make sense if you can't verify said eligibility (which starts with verifying identity).

Maybe I’m not in those circles but college should be $1000/semester imo. A lot closer to free than it currently is. But the way to get there isn’t financial aid, it’s…charging only $1000/semester.

Fraud is still fraud.

I only clicked through the first few steps of the process but it appears to require government issued ID.

You don't need to be in the country legally to get a California driver's license.

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/driver-licenses-identification...

Similarly, there are mechanisms that allow victims of crimes to seek help from the police without fear of deportation.

Makes sense to me. I'm much more worried about road safety and crime than people coming to the US then paying payroll and sales taxes, but not being able to claim federal benefits.

Which is to say, they are "undocumented" on federal level but not on state level.

Which is well and good, but then the original question still applies: how do the bots manage to get past all these requirements?

Shouldn't the process of getting that financial aid make them registered?