The state of New Jersey wants to defend against a group of Republican attorneys general seeking to strip the ability of undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to access insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
In a brief filed in a North Dakota federal court on Wednesday, New Jersey argued on behalf of a group of 14 Democratic states that the incoming Trump administration can’t be “counted on” to defend a Biden-era rule that opened Obamacare exchanges to members of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
“Undermining Dreamers’ access to healthcare not only hurts them and their American children, but it harms states like New Jersey too,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement. “We will never back down from fighting for our Dreamers, no matter who is in charge in Washington.”
In May of last year, the Biden administration announced the new ACA rule, which held that DACA recipients, known as Dreamers, were “lawfully present” in the U.S. and thus able to get Obamacare benefits.
“I’m proud of the contributions of Dreamers to our country and committed to providing Dreamers the support they need to succeed,” Biden said in a statement at the time.
By August, a group that would swell to 19 Republican-led states, challenged the rule, arguing it violated both a 1996 welfare reform and the ACA itself.
“Illegal aliens shouldn’t get a free pass into our country,” Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, who is leading the GOP coalition, said in a statement at the time. “They shouldn’t receive taxpayer benefits when they arrive, and the Biden-Harris administration shouldn’t get a free pass to violate federal law.”
Federal officials estimate that the rule change could give 100,000 immigrants access to legal healthcare.
The states seeking to intervene argue that giving Dreamers access to Obamacare exchanges will provide a group of chronically under-insured people access to care and lower state healthcare costs overall.
Last month, a federal court ruled that Dreamers won’t be able to get ACA coverage in states challenging the rule while the lawsuit goes forward.
At the time that the states challenged the rule, some of them, like Kansas, Nebraska, and Virginia, allowed migrants other government benefits, including lower tuition rates at state universities available to state residents.
During his first term in office, Donald Trump tried to end the DACA program but was blocked by the Supreme Court in 2020.
This time around, Trump campaigned on carrying out the largest mass deportations in U.S. history but has also said he’d like to find some way for childhood arrivals to stay in the U.S.
