TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – Fifteen states filed a federal lawsuit Thursday Biden Administration on a provision expected to allow 100,000 immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children to enroll in federal Affordable Care Act health insurance next year.
States are seeking to block the rule from taking effect on Nov. 1 and offer people known as “Dreamers” access to tax breaks when they sign up for insurance coverage. Enrollment in the Affordable Care Act marketplace opens on the same day, just four days before the presidential election.
The states filed suit in North Dakota, one of the states. All have Republican lawyers who are part of a GOP effort to block Biden’s administration rules that advance Democratic policy goals.
The lawsuit claims the rule violates the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 and the ACA. They also said it would encourage more immigrants to come to the U.S. illegally, burdening states and their public school systems. Many economists have concluded that immigrants provide a net economic benefit, and immigration appears to have fueled job growth after the COVID-19 pandemic prevented a recession.
The lawsuit comes as Republicans attack Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presumptive presidential nominee, as weak in curbing illegal immigration. Border crossing numbers reached record highs during the Biden administration, but have declined recently.
“Illegal aliens should not be allowed free entry into our country,” Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach said in a statement. “They shouldn’t get taxpayer benefits upon arrival, and the Biden-Harris administration shouldn’t get a free pass to break federal law.”
Kobach is an immigration hardliner who began building a national profile two decades ago by calling for tough restrictions on immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, and he helped draft the Arizona “show the papers” law In 2010. In addition to Kansas and North Dakota, the states involved in the lawsuit are Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Virginia.
Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond Thursday to an email seeking comment on the lawsuit. But Biden said in May when outlining the rule that he was “committed to providing Dreamers with the support they need to succeed.” The Biden administration protects them from deportation.
The “Dreamers” and their supporters have said they were young people who had little or no choice to come to the United States, and years later are fully integrated into their communities. At least 25 states, including Kansas, Nebraska and Virginia, allow them to pay the lower tuition rates reserved for their residents, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
In May, Biden said, “I am proud of the contributions Dreamers make to our country.”
“Dreamers” are not eligible for government-sponsored health insurance programs because they did not meet the definition of “legal presence” in the United States. The states that filed the lawsuit said the rule’s declaration of their legal presence is “illogical.” ” because they would face deportation without the intervention of the Biden administration.
“Subsidized health insurance through the ACA is a valuable public good that encourages illegal aliens to remain in the United States,” the lawsuit said.
In previous lawsuits against the Biden administration, states have at times struggled to convince judges that the harm to them from the new rule is direct, concrete and specific enough to give them the right to sue. Of the 15 states involved in the lawsuit, only Idaho and Virginia operate their own health insurance marketplaces rather than relying on the federal marketplace.
But the states argue that they all face higher costs because of increased illegal immigration. They rely on the 2023 federal report on US immigration reform, which not only advocates tougher laws against illegal immigration, but strict restrictions on legal immigration as well.
