AGs Sue To Stop Biden-Harris Rule Giving ‘Free’ Health Care To Illegal Aliens: Except It’s Not Free. Your Tax Dollars are Paying for It; 15 States Sue to Block Biden’s Effort to Help Migrants in US Illegally Get Health Coverage

AGs Sue To Stop Biden-Harris Rule Giving ‘Free’ Health Care To Illegal Aliens:

15 states sue to block Biden’s effort to help migrants in US illegally get health coverage

Nearly 18 months ago, I noted in these pages the “likelihood of a legal challenge” to a Biden administration proposal to make eligible for Obamacare subsidies certain illegal immigrants. That legal challenge just became a reality.

On Thursday, a series of Republican attorneys general, led by Kansas’ Kris Kobach, filed suit in federal court in North Dakota seeking to strike down this change. The rule, which the Biden administration finalized this spring, redefines the term “lawfully present” to make participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program eligible for Exchange subsidies.

The complaint alleges that the final rule violates two provisions of federal law. First, the 1996 federal welfare reform law prohibited the receipt of taxpayer-funded benefits to non-qualified aliens “notwithstanding any other provision of law.” Because DACA recipients do not meet the definition of “qualified aliens,” the welfare law prohibits them from receiving benefits, irrespective of what Obamacare says.

The lawsuit also alleges that DACA recipients are ineligible for subsidies under the statutory definition included in Obamacare itself. The complaint notes that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) “determination that deferred action recipients are lawfully present is obviously a self-contradiction: it defines as ‘lawfully present’ the class of individuals whom [the Department of Homeland Security] is deferring removal action based on their unlawful presence” (emphasis original).

The suit cites both an 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling from 2019 that emphasizes that the DACA program “does not mean that [participants] are in any way ‘lawfully present,’” as well as a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling questioning DACA’s own legality. It claims that the Biden administration’s latest action violated the above-referenced laws and was made in an arbitrary and capricious manner, without considering the potential costs to states, reconciling contradictions with existing statutes, or providing a reason for changing an interpretation of the law that has existed for over a decade. —>READ MORE HERE

15 states sue to block Biden’s effort to help migrants in US illegally get health coverage:

Fifteen states filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the Biden administration over a rule that is expected to allow 100,000 immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children to enroll next year in the federal Affordable Care Act’s health insurance.

The states are seeking to block the rule from taking effect Nov. 1 and providing people known as “Dreamers” access to tax breaks when they sign up for coverage. The Affordable Care Act’s marketplace enrollment opens the same day, just four days ahead of the presidential election.

The states filed suit in North Dakota, one of the states involved. All have Republican attorneys general who are part of a GOP effort to thwart Biden administration rules advancing Democratic policy goals.

The lawsuit argues that the rule violates a 1996 welfare reform law and the ACA. They also said it would encourage more immigrants to come to the U.S. illegally, burdening the 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 that prevented a recession.

The lawsuit comes amid Republican attacks on Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, as weak on curbing illegal immigration. Border crossings hit record highs during the Biden administration but have dropped more recently.

“Illegal aliens shouldn’t get a free pass into our country,” Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach said in a statement. “They shouldn’t receive taxpayer benefits when they arrive, and the Biden-Harris administration shouldn’t get a free pass to violate federal law.”

Kobach is an immigration hardliner who began building a national profile two decades ago by urging tough restrictions on immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, and he helped draft Arizona’s “show your papers” law in 2010. Besides Kansas and North Dakota, the other states involved in the lawsuit are Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia. —>READ MORE HERE

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