BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – Young immigrants known as “Dreamers” in 19 U.S. states will be temporarily blocked from purchasing health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s public marketplace, the federal government says. A judge ruled that the Biden administration’s relief efforts will be limited. Immigrants brought to this country illegally as children.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor of North Dakota issued Bismarck’s order Monday, marking a setback to the Biden administration’s rule that would have allowed an estimated 147,000 immigrants to buy health insurance. Traynor’s ruling comes in a lawsuit brought over the insurance and will remain in effect until the issue goes to court.
The ruling applies to immigrants in 19 states where Republican attorneys general have filed lawsuits to avoid compliance with the new policy. They cited concerns that immigrants could become eligible for public subsidies available to many ACA-insured people.
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Republican state officials argued that rules enacted earlier this year by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could create a strong incentive for immigrants to remain in the U.S. illegally, creating costs for states. They argued that both the Affordable Care Act and the 1996 law prohibit providing U.S. government benefits to immigrants who are in the country illegally.
“Dreamers” are part of a program that gives them lower priority for deportation. But President-elect Donald Trump won the November 5 election by promising “the largest mass deportation program in history.” He will succeed President Joe Biden on January 20.
Through what he called “common sense reasoning,” Traynor, who was appointed during President Trump’s first term, found that access to subsidized ACA insurance was a powerful incentive for people to stay in the country illegally, and that states It concluded that this poses a significant residual risk. “You will suffer financial loss.”
While federal law gives CMS the authority to determine whether someone is legally resident in the United States, Traynor said, “Federal law does not allow CMS to circumvent Congress’s authority to say ‘lawfully present.’ I am in no way condoning redefining terms.”
CMS said in a statement Tuesday that it is reviewing the lawsuit but does not comment on litigation.
Nicholas Espiritu, deputy legal director at the National Immigration Law Center, said some “Dreamers” have been waiting more than a decade to get “life-sustaining” health insurance through the ACA.
“Judge Traynor’s decision is disappointing and legally wrong,” Espiritu said, vowing the group would continue to fight this issue.
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But Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach called the decision “a victory for the rule of law.” He told reporters after a hearing in Bismarck in October that the Biden administration is trying to redefine what it means to be an immigrant legally in the United States through “statutory law enforcement,” calling the rule “mysterious.” He said he calls it “Alice’s Country”.
North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley added that American taxpayers, through Congress, will decide how the federal government treats immigrants who are in the United States illegally.
“And while it doesn’t necessarily sound friendly and gentle and cuddly, it speaks to the access to our health care system, the cost of our health care system, and the burden on the American people, the taxpayers. ” he said.
Kansas and North Dakota are the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which was filed in August. They were joined by Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
“Thankfully, the court has put another nail in the coffin for Biden’s radical left agenda,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement Tuesday.
Hannah reported from Topeka, Kansas. Associated Press writer Kimberly Chandler in Montmerry, Alabama, contributed.
