TOPEKA — Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach filed a lawsuit on Thursday on behalf of 15 states seeking to block President Joe Biden from expanding access to health care by making DACA recipients eligible for the health insurance marketplace.
Kobach, a Republican who has built his political career focusing on legal issues related to illegal immigration, was joined in the federal lawsuit by the attorneys general of Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia.
Kobach challenged a federal rule issued by the Department of Health and Human Services that would make people who arrived in the U.S. as children, sometimes known as Dreamers, eligible for taxpayer-subsidized health plans under the ACA. The Biden administration's effort makes DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) part of the health insurance marketplace starting November 1.
The lawsuit asks a federal court to delay the effective date of the HHS rule until the litigation is completed, and to strike down the rule as “unlawful, unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious.”
“Illegal immigrants should not be able to freely enter our country,” Kobach said, using derogatory language aimed at those in the country illegally. “They should not receive taxpayer benefits when they enter the country, and the Biden-Harris Administration should not get free rein to break federal law. That's why I'm filing a multi-state lawsuit to stop this unlawful restriction from taking effect.”
Kobach said in the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota, that the administration of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris intended to violate federal law that bars government benefits from flowing to people who are not U.S. citizens or who are in the country illegally.
Kobach noted that Congress limited eligibility for federal public benefits to certain “qualified aliens” in 1996. DACA recipients were not included in the definition of qualified immigrants, he said. Additionally, Congress limited eligibility for ACA-qualified health insurance to U.S. “citizens or nationals” or “aliens lawfully present in the United States,” according to Kobach's filing.
“In fact, to qualify for DACA, an individual must be illegally present in the United States,” Kobach's petition states.
When Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra announced the final DACA rules in May, he said the changes could allow 100,000 previously uninsured DACA recipients to sign up for health insurance through the marketplace.
“The Department of Health and Human Services is committed to ensuring that DACA recipients – Dreamers – who have worked so hard to live the American Dream – have access to health insurance,” Becerra said. “Dreamers are our neighbors and friends. They are our students, teachers, social workers, doctors and nurses. And more importantly, they are our fellow Americans.”
Kobach argued that the HHS rule would allow up to 200,000 DACA recipients to sign up for health insurance through the marketplace. His total counts include 4,350 DACA recipients in Kansas and 2,550 in Missouri. Other plaintiff states include 7,810 DACA recipients in Virginia, 7,450 in Indiana, 6,360 in Tennessee, 4,840 in South Carolina, 220 in New Hampshire, 130 in North Dakota and 80 in Montana.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said extending health insurance through the ACA to Alabama's 3,460 DACA recipients was another “assault on the American worker.”
“First, this administration is asking hardworking Americans to pay for someone else's college degree, then forcing them to pay for medical procedures that go against their beliefs, and now trying to direct them to pay for the medical care of people who should not be in this country,” Marshall said.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said the lawsuit was necessary to block the Biden administration's unconstitutional efforts to expand Obamacare coverage.
“I feel sorry for the people who didn't choose to be brought here,” Wilson said, “but this is another example of the Biden administration trying to do something it doesn't have the authority to do.”
