For now, ‘Dreamers’ will be shut out of the health care marketplace in 19 states
BISMARCK, N.D. — Young adult immigrants known as “Dreamers” in 19 U.S. states will be temporarily barred from obtaining health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s public marketplace, a federal judge has ruled, halting the Biden administration’s efforts to to help immigrants who have been brought to the country illegally are limited children.
Judge Daniel Traynor of the U.S. District Court in North Dakota issued Bismarck’s order Monday, dealing a setback a Biden administration rule this allowed an estimated 147,000 immigrants to sign up for coverage. Traynor’s statement came in a lawsuit filed on the policy and will remain in effect until the case can go to trial.
The ruling applies to immigrants in 19 states where Republican attorneys general have sued to avoid having to comply with the new policy. They cited concerns about immigrants who may be eligible for government subsidies available to many people insured under the ACA.
GOP state officials argued that the rule, introduced earlier this year by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, would provide a strong incentive for immigrants to stay in the U.S. illegally and could impose costs on states. They argued that both the Affordable Care Act and a 1996 law ban U.S. government benefits for immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. “Dreamers” are part of a program that makes them a low priority for deportation. However, newly elected President Donald Trump won the November 5 election and promised “the greatest mass deportation program in history.” He will succeed President Joe Biden on January 20.
Traynor, appointed by Trump during his first term, concluded from what he called “a common sense inference” that access to subsidized ACA coverage is a powerful incentive for people to stay in the U.S. illegally, creating a there is a significant risk that states will do so. “suffer monetary damages.”
Federal law gives CMS the authority to determine whether someone is legally resident in the U.S., but Traynor wrote, “It in no way allows the agency to circumvent Congress’ authority and redefine the term ‘lawfully present’.”
CMS said in a statement Tuesday that it is investigating the lawsuit but will not comment on the lawsuit. Nicholas Espíritu, deputy legal director of the National Immigration Law Center, said some “dreamers” have been waiting more than a decade for “life-sustaining” health care coverage through the ACA.
“Judge Traynor’s ruling is both disappointing and legally flawed,” Espíritu said, pledging that his group would continue to fight the issue.
But Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach called the decision “a victory for the rule of law.” He told reporters after a hearing in the Bismarck lawsuit in October that the Biden administration was trying to redefine what immigrants legally live in the U.S. through “executive powers.” fiat,” calling the line “Alice in Wonderland stuff.”
North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley added that American taxpayers, through Congress, determine how the federal government treats immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
“And it doesn’t always come across as friendly and nice and cuddly, but it speaks to access to our health care system, the cost of our health care system and the burden on the American public, the taxpayers,” he said. .
Kansas and North Dakota are the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in August. They have been joined by Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
“Fortunately, the court has put another nail in the coffin of Biden’s radical left agenda,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement on Tuesday.
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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas. Associated Press writer Kimberly Chandler of Mongtomery, Alabama, also contributed.