TOPEKA, Kansas (AP) — Fifteen states filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the Biden administration on a rule that is expected to allow 100,000 immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children to enroll in the federal Affordable Care Act health insurance next year.
The states are trying to prevent the rule from taking effect Nov. 1, giving people known as “Dreamers” access to tax breaks when they sign up for coverage. Affordable Care Act marketplace enrollment opens the same day, just four days before the presidential election.
The states have filed a lawsuit in North Dakota, one of the states involved. They all have Republican attorneys general, part of a GOP effort to block Biden administration rules that advance Democratic policy goals.
The lawsuit alleges 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, placing a burden on 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 amid Republican attacks on Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, for being weak on curbing illegal immigration. Border crossings hit record highs during the Biden administration but have fallen recently.
“Illegal aliens should not be given safe passage into our country,” said the Kansas Attorney General. Kris Kobach said in a statement. “They should not receive tax breaks when they arrive, and the Biden-Harris administration should not be given a free pass to violate federal law.”
Kobach is an immigration hardliner who began building a national reputation two decades ago by imposing tough restrictions on immigrants in the U.S. illegally. He also helped draft Arizona’s constitution. “show your papers” law in 2010. In addition to 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.
Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the lawsuit on Thursday. But Biden, in outlining the rule in May, said he was “committed to providing Dreamers with the support they need to succeed.” The Biden administration protects them from deportation.
The “Dreamers” and their advocates have said they are young people who had little or no choice in coming to the U.S. and years later have become 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 of Dreamers to our country.”
The “Dreamers” were ineligible for government-subsidized health insurance because they did not meet the definition of a “lawful presence” in the U.S. The states that filed the lawsuit said declaring their lawful presence through a rule was “prima facie illogical” since they would face deportation without intervention from the Biden administration.
“Subsidized health insurance through the ACA is a valuable public benefit that encourages unlawfully present foreign beneficiaries to remain in the United States,” the lawsuit says.
In past lawsuits against the Biden administration, states have sometimes struggled to convince judges that the harm they face from a new rule is immediate, concrete and specific enough to warrant suing. Of the 15 states involved in the lawsuit, only Idaho and Virginia operate their own health insurance marketplaces rather than relying on a federal marketplace.
But the states argue that they all face higher costs because of increased illegal immigration, citing a 2023 report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which calls not only for tougher laws against illegal immigration but also for tighter restrictions on legal immigration.
