TOPEKA — Attorney General Kris Kobach of Kansas and 15 other states filed a lawsuit on Thursday to stop President Joe Biden from giving DACA applicants better access to health care by letting them join the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplace.
Attorneys general from Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Virginia joined Kobach in the federal lawsuit. Kobach is a Republican who has spent most of his political career working on legal issues related to undocumented immigrants.
Kobach fought against the government rule made by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that would let people who came to the U.S. as children, who are sometimes called “Dreamers,” get health plans paid for by taxpayers under the Affordable Care Act.
DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients would be able to get health insurance on November 1 thanks to a plan put forward by the Biden administration.
In the lawsuit, it was asked that the federal court delay the HHS rule’s start date until the case was over. It also tried to get rid of the rule because it was “against the law and unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious.”
Kobach used an insulting term for people who live in the U.S. illegally and said, “Illegal aliens shouldn’t get a free pass into our country.” “When they get there, they shouldn’t get any help from taxpayers, and the Biden-Harris administration shouldn’t be able to break the law without any consequences.” That’s why I’m leading a lawsuit with other states to stop this illegal rule from going into action.
In the complaint filed in North Dakota with the U.S. District Court, Kobach said that the administration of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris planned to break a federal law that says people who aren’t citizens of the United States or are in the country illegally can’t get government benefits.
He said that in 1996, Congress made it so that only certain “qualified aliens” could get government benefits. He said that people with DACA weren’t included in the list of eligible immigrants.
Kobach’s filing also said that Congress limited who could join the ACA’s qualified health plans to “citizens or nationals” of the United States or “aliens lawfully present in the United States.”
Kobach’s plea said, “In fact, to be eligible for DACA, you must be in the United States illegally.”
When the final DACA rule came out in May, Xavier Becerra, the secretary of HHS, said that the change could cause 100,000 DACA users who didn’t have health insurance before to sign up for it through the marketplaces.
“Dreamers” (“DACA winners) who have worked hard to live the American dream will be able to get health insurance, Becerra said. “Dreamers live near us and are our friends. They are teachers, students, social workers, nurses, doctors, and social workers. Even more important, they are American citizens.
Kobach said that the HHS rule would let up to 200,000 DACA recipients get health insurance through the marketplace. Out of all the people he helped with DACA, 4,350 lived in Kansas and 2,550 lived in Missouri.
The number of plaintiffs in other states went from 7,810 in Virginia to 2,20 in New Hampshire to 130 in North Dakota to 80 in Montana. The numbers were 7,450 in Indiana to 6,360 in Tennessee to 4,840 in South Carolina.
Steve Marshall, the attorney general of Alabama, said that giving health insurance to 3,460 DACA users in Alabama through the Affordable Care Act was a new “attack on the American worker.”
Marshall said, “First, this administration wants hardworking Americans to pay for someone else’s college degree. Then it forces them to pay for medical procedures that go against their beliefs. And now they want to tell them to pay for health care for people who shouldn’t even be in this country.”
Alan Wilson, the attorney general of South Carolina, said the lawsuit was required to stop the Biden administration’s unconstitutional move to make Obamacare cover more people.
Wilson said, “I feel bad for these people who didn’t choose to be brought here.” “But this is another case of the Biden administration trying to do something it doesn’t have the power to do,”
