A federal judge in North Dakota has ruled in favor of 19 states, including Florida, that challenged a Biden administration rule allowing — for the first time — enrollment in Affordable Care Act coverage by young adults brought to the U.S. as children illegally, known as “Dreamers.”
The move effectively bars those who have qualified for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in those states from enrolling in or getting subsidies for ACA plans. It does not appear to affect enrollment or coverage in other states, lawyers following the case said Tuesday.
Judge Daniel Traynor of the U.S. District Court in North Dakota issued a preliminary injunction Monday from Bismarck, dealing a setback to a Biden administration rule that was estimated to allow 147,000 immigrants to enroll for coverage.
Republican attorneys general, including Florida's Ashley Moody, sued in August to avoid having to comply with the new policy. They cited concern over immigrants possibly qualifying for public subsidies available to many people insured under the ACA.
The GOP state officials argued that the rule created earlier this year by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would be a strong incentive for immigrants to remain in the U.S. illegally and could create added costs for states. They argued that both the ACA and a 1996 law prohibit U.S. government benefits flowing to immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
Dreamers are part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that makes them a low priority for deportation. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, about 21,000 DACA recipients are in Florida.
The Biden administration is likely to appeal quickly, although a final decision is not likely until after President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated Jan. 20. Trump has said he has "concepts" to replace or improve the ACA and has promised “the largest mass deportation program in history.”
Traynor, a Trump appointee during his first term in office, concluded through what he called “a common-sense inference” that access to subsidized ACA coverage is a powerful incentive for people to remain in the U.S. illegally, creating a substantial risk that states will “suffer monetary harm.”
Federal law gives CMS the authority to determine whether someone is living in the U.S. legally, but, Traynor wrote, “It by no means allows the agency to circumvent congressional authority and redefine the term ‘lawfully present.’ ”
CMS said in a statement Tuesday that it is reviewing the ruling but does not comment on litigation.
Nicholas Espíritu, deputy legal director of the National Immigration Law Center, said some “Dreamers” have been waiting for more than a decade to get “life-sustaining” health coverage through the ACA.
“Judge Traynor’s ruling is both disappointing and wrong on the law,” Espíritu said, promising his group would continue to fight the issue.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach called the decision “a victory for the rule of law." He told reporters after a hearing in Bismarck in October that the Biden administration sought to redefine what it means to be an immigrant living in the U.S. legally by “executive fiat,” calling the rule “Alice in Wonderland stuff.”
North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley added then that American taxpayers, through Congress, determine how the federal government treats immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
“And it doesn’t always come across as friendly and nice and cuddly, but it speaks to the access to our health care system, the cost of our health care system and the burden on the American public, the taxpayer,” he said.
Kansas and North Dakota are the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit. In addition to Florida, they were joined by Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
“Thankfully, the court put another nail in the coffin of Biden’s radical left-wing agenda,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement Tuesday.
DACA was established through executive action in June 2012 by President Barack Obama, protecting from deportation and providing work authorization to some unauthorized residents brought to the U.S. as children by their families. It had certain requirements, including that they arrived before June 2007 and had completed high school, were attending school or were serving in the military.
Before the injunction, 19 other states and the District of Columbia filed a brief in support of the Biden administration rule. Led by New Jersey, those states include many in the East and West, including California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington.
Information from KFF Health News was used in this report.
