President Biden announced Thursday his administration will extend health care coverage to migrants who arrived illegally but remain in the US under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
The White House put out a fact sheet stating more than a half-million so-called “Dreamers” will now be eligible for Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage.
Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services is expected to propose a rule by the end of the month amending the definition of “lawful presence” to include the migrants.
“Today, my Administration is announcing our plan to expand health coverage for Dreamers, the thousands of young people brought to the U.S. as kids,” Biden said of the effort in a video posted to Twitter.
The Obama administration rolled out the DACA program in 2012 to prevent children who illegally entered the country with their parents from being deported — and also to provide a lawful path toward work and paying taxes in the US as adults.
Biden has repeatedly said he’d like to see Congress provide a path toward citizenship for DACA recipients.
Around 580,000 Dreamers participate in the program, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services
As part of a surge of illegal border crossings under the Biden administration, more than 150,000 unaccompanied minors came into the US last year, according to Customs and Border Protection.
A federal judge in 2021 blocked DACA from processing new recipients, saying former President Barack Obama did not have the legal authority to stop deportations for undocumented children — and that Biden lacked the authority to renew the program when he took office.
Republican-led states — including Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia — had sued the administration to halt DACA for circumventing Congress.
But in US District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Judge Andrew Hanen ruled in favor of Texas and the eight other conservative states in 2021.
Former President Donald Trump had tried to end the program during his first year in office but was overturned by a Supreme Court decision in 2020.
The White House is blaming Congress for failing to act sooner “to protect Dreamers.”
“President Biden and Vice President Harris believe that health care should be a right, not a privilege,” the fact sheet reads.
Biden also said his administration was “not done fighting” for a path to citizenship for DACA recipients.
“We’re not done fighting for their pathway to citizenship, but we’re getting them the opportunities they deserve in the meantime.”