Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican, is leading a 15-state lawsuit against the administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for extending the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, to undocumented immigrants enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
In May, Biden and Harris released a final rule that would open up Obamacare to some undocumented immigrants enrolled in the DACA program, which former President Barack Obama first created by executive order and has protected more than 1 million undocumented immigrants from deportation over the years.
On Thursday, Governor Kobach announced the lawsuit against the rule, joined by the attorneys general of Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia.
The lawsuit accuses the Biden-Harris administration of luring undocumented immigrants with expensive health care subsidies in an effort to keep them in the U.S. when they might have left voluntarily.
“The final rule is expected to make 200,000 DACA recipients newly eligible for subsidized health insurance,” the lawsuit states. state:
Subsidized Health Insurance [Obamacare] It is a valuable public benefit that encourages illegal alien beneficiaries to remain in the United States.The majority of DACA recipients have limited access to subsidized health care in their countries of origin, and even when subsidized health care is available in their countries of origin, needed medicines and medical equipment are often in short supply or unavailable. [Emphasis added]
Economic value of qualifications [Obamacare] Insurance that provides access to good healthcare In the United States, foreigners have limited or inadequate medical assistance in their home countries. It provides a significant economic incentive for foreigners to remain in the United States. [Emphasis added]
Foreign nationals who would otherwise have returned to their home countries are likely to remain in the United States. Because you are qualified [Obamacare] Coverage Provided by the Final Rule. [Emphasis added]
Similarly, state taxpayers “will incur fiscal costs associated with the continued presence of DACA recipients in their respective jurisdictions,” the lawsuit argues.
Final rule provides incentives for DACA recipients, their children and minors Currently residing in the plaintiff state, whose parents entered the United States illegally They will be forced to remain in the plaintiff states, which will result in the plaintiff states incurring additional education, health care, law enforcement, and public assistance expenditures.and other limited resources. [Emphasis added]
…
Under current case law, states must allow minors who are not legally in the U.S. to attend school. As a result, All of the plaintiff states incur costs by providing K-12 public education to DACA recipients and their children. Some DACA recipients are parents of K-12 school-age children or are K-12 school-age children themselves. [Emphasis added]
DACA recipients also receive public benefits in the form of public assistance in the plaintiff state, indigent legal defense, and emergency medical expenses. States also pay for the DACA program through prison incarceration. Percentage of DACA recipients who commit crimes. [Emphasis added]
Previous cost estimates suggest that enrolling the roughly 100,000 DACA immigrants in the program would cost American taxpayers about $300 million a year. Other estimates put the annual financial burden at about $2.8 billion.
In his 2012 State of the Union address, President Obama promised the American people that illegal immigrants would not be covered by Obamacare, to which Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) cried, “You’re lying!”
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate, introduced a bill last year to ban illegal immigrants from receiving Obamacare benefits.
“We are experiencing an unprecedented crisis on our southern border and major conflicts around the world. Families across Ohio are suffering from inflation,” Gov. Vance said after the announcement in May.
“Joe Biden’s response is to give people’s hard-earned money, in the form of taxpayer-paid health care, to illegal immigrants,” Vance said. “This is an affront to every hard-working American who plays by the rules, and it would never have happened if Donald Trump was president.”
This lawsuit Kansas v. United States In the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter. here.
