BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Young adult immigrants known as “Dreamers” in 19 U.S. states will be temporarily blocked from purchasing health insurance through the (*19*) Care Act’s public marketplace following a federal judge’s ruling, hampering the country’s relief efforts Biden administration restricts immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.
Judge Daniel Traynor of the U.S. District Court in North Dakota issued the Bismarck order on Monday, marking a setback to a Biden administration rule that allowed an estimated 147,000 immigrants to sign up for insurance. Traynor’s ruling came as part of a lawsuit over the policy and will remain in effect until the matter can be brought to trial.
The ruling applies to immigrants in 19 states where Republican attorneys general have filed suit to avoid compliance with the modern policy. They expressed concerns that immigrants might be eligible for public subsidies available to many ACA insured people.
Republican state officials argued that the rule, created earlier this year by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, would create a forceful incentive for immigrants to stay in the U.S. illegally and could impose costs on states. They argued that both the (*19*) Care Act and a 1996 law prohibit the payment of U.S. government benefits to immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. “Dreamers” are part of a program that gives them low priority for deportation. However, President-elect Donald Trump won the election on November 5, promising “the largest mass deportation program in history.” He will succeed President Joe Biden on January 20.
Traynor, a Trump appointee during his first term, concluded by what he called a “reasonable conclusion” that access to subsidized ACA coverage provides a forceful incentive for people to remain in the U.S. illegally, which poses a significant risk for states to “suffer monetary damage.”
Federal law gives CMS the authority to determine whether someone is legally present in the U.S., but Traynor wrote, “It in no way allows the agency to circumvent the authority of Congress and redefine the term ‘lawfully present.’
CMS said in a statement Tuesday that it is reviewing the lawsuit but does not comment on the litigation.
Nicholas Espíritu, deputy legal director of the National Immigration Law Center, said some “dreamers” have waited more than a decade to get “life-sustaining” health insurance through the ACA.
“Judge Traynor’s ruling is both disappointing and legally flawed,” Espíritu said, pledging that his group would continue the fight against the issue.
But Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach called the decision “a victory for the rule of law.” After a hearing in Bismarck in October, he told reporters that the Biden administration has sought to redefine what it means to be an immigrant living legally in the U.S. through “executive fiat,” calling the rule “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 seem nice 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 taxpayer,” he said.
Kansas and North Dakota are the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit 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.
“Fortunately, the court has put another nail in the coffin of Biden’s far-left 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, Ala., also contributed.
