For now, 'Dreamers' will be shut out of the health care marketplace in
19 states
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[December 11, 2024]
By JOHN HANNA and JACK DURA
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Young adult immigrants known as “Dreamers” in 19
U.S. states will be temporarily blocked from getting health insurance
through the Affordable Care Act's public marketplace, a federal judge
has ruled, limiting an effort by the Biden administration to help
immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.
Judge Daniel Traynor of the U.S. District Court in North Dakota issued
the order Monday from Bismarck, dealing a setback to a Biden
administration rule that was estimated to allow 147,000 immigrants to
enroll for coverage. Traynor's ruling came in a lawsuit filed over the
policy and will remain in effect until the matter can go to trial.
The ruling applies to immigrants in 19 states where Republican attorneys
general sued to avoid having to comply with the new policy. They cited
concern over immigrants possibly qualifying for public subsidies
available to many people insured under the ACA.
The GOP state officials argued that the rule created earlier this year
by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would be a strong
incentive for immigrants to remain in the U.S. illegally and could
creating costs for states. They argued that both the Affordable Care Act
and a 1996 law prohibit U.S. government benefits flowing to immigrants
living in the U.S. illegally.
“Dreamers” are part of a program that makes them a low priority for
deportation. However, President-elect Donald Trump won the Nov. 5
election promising “the largest mass deportation program in history.” He
will succeed President Joe Biden on Jan. 20.
Traynor, a Trump appointee during his first term in office, concluded
through what he called “a common-sense inference” that access to
subsidized ACA coverage is a powerful incentive for people to remain in
the U.S. illegally, creating a substantial risk that states will “suffer
monetary harm.”
Federal law gives CMS the authority to determine whether someone is
living in the U.S. legally, but, Traynor wrote, “It by no means allows
the agency to circumvent congressional authority and redefine the term
‘lawfully present.’”
CMS said in a statement Tuesday that it is reviewing the lawsuit but
does not comment on litigation.
Nicholas Espíritu, deputy legal director of the National Immigration Law
Center, said some “Dreamers” have been waiting for more than a decade to
get “life-sustaining” health coverage through the ACA.
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From left, Republican Attorneys General Drew Wrigley of North
Dakota, Kris Kobach of Kansas and Marty Jackley of South Dakota
speak to reporters after a hearing in federal court in Bismarck,
N.D., on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Jack Dura)
“Judge Traynor’s ruling is both
disappointing and wrong on the law,” Espíritu said, promising 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
Bismarck in October that the Biden administration sought to redefine
what it means to be an immigrant living in the U.S. legally by
“executive fiat,” calling the rule “Alice in Wonderland stuff.”
North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley added then 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 the access to our health care system, the cost of
our health care system, and the burden on the American public, the
taxpayer,” he said.
Kansas and North Dakota are the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed
in August. They've been 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 put another nail in the coffin of Biden’s
radical left-wing agenda,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall
said in a statement Tuesday.
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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas. Associated Press Writer Kimberly
Chandler in Mongtomery, Alabama, also contributed.
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