COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCSC/AP) – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced Thursday he has joined a federal lawsuit against the Biden administration’s efforts to extend healthcare coverage to some illegal immigrants.
A total of 15 states, including South Carolina, filed a lawsuit targeting President Bident’s rule that is expected to allow 100,000 immigrants brought into the United States illegally as children to enroll next year in the federal Affordable Care Act’s health insurance.
Wilson claimed the Biden administration expanded the definition of individuals “lawfully present” in the United States to include so-called “Dreamers.” Officially known as DACA recipients, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, they’re children who were brought into the country illegally by their parents.
“I’m sympathetic to these people who didn’t choose to be brought here,” Wilson said in the news release. “However, this is yet another example of the Biden administration trying to do something it doesn’t have the authority to do.”
The states are seeking to block the rule from taking effect Nov. 1 and providing people known as “Dreamers” access to tax breaks when they sign up for coverage. The Affordable Care Act’s marketplace enrollment opens the same day, just four days ahead of the presidential election.
All have Republican attorneys general who are part of a GOP effort to thwart Biden administration rules advancing Democratic policy goals.
The lawsuit argues that the rule violates a 1996 welfare reform law and the ACA. They also said it would encourage more immigrants to come to the U.S. illegally, burdening the states and their public school systems. Many economists have concluded that immigrants provide a net economic benefit, and immigration appears to have fueled job growth after the COVID-19 pandemic that prevented a recession.
The final plan would make more than 200,000 DACA recipients eligible for taxpayer-subsidized health plans. The attorney general’s office cited the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, saying there are approximately 4,840 DACA recipients in South Carolina. Approximately 117,000 to 157,00 illegal aliens are living in South Carolina, including their children, costing taxpayers between $555 million to $756 million per year.
The lawsuit comes amid Republican attacks on Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, as weak on curbing illegal immigration. Border crossings hit record highs during the Biden administration but have dropped more recently.
“Illegal aliens shouldn’t get a free pass into our country,” Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach said in a statement. “They shouldn’t receive taxpayer benefits when they arrive, and the Biden-Harris administration shouldn’t get a free pass to violate federal law.”
Kobach is an immigration hardliner who began building a national profile two decades ago by urging tough restrictions on immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, and he helped draft Arizona’s “show your papers” law in 2010. Besides Kansas and North Dakota, the other states involved in the lawsuit are Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials did not immediately respond Thursday to an email seeking comment about the lawsuit. But Biden said in May in outlining the rule that he was “committed to providing Dreamers the support they need to succeed.” The Biden administration is shielding them from deportation.
The “Dreamers” and their advocates have said they’re young people who had little or no choice in coming to the U.S. and years later are fully integrated into their communities. At least 25 states, including Kansas, Nebraska and Virginia, allow them to pay the lower tuition rates reserved for their residents, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
In May, Biden said: “I’m proud of the contributions of Dreamers to our country.”
The “Dreamers” have been ineligible for government-subsidized health insurance programs because they did not meet the definition of having a “lawful presence” in the U.S. The states filing the lawsuit said declaring their lawful presence by rule is “illogical on its face,” given that they’d face deportation without Biden administration intervention.
“Subsidized health insurance through the ACA is a valuable public benefit that encourages unlawfully present alien beneficiaries to remain in the United States,” the lawsuit said.
In past lawsuits against the Biden administration, states have sometimes struggled to persuade judges that the harm they face from a new rule is direct, concrete and specific enough to give them the right to sue. Of the 15 states involved in the lawsuit, only Idaho and Virginia run their own health insurance marketplaces instead of relying on a federal one.
But the states argue that they all face higher costs from increased illegal immigration. They rely on a 2023 report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which not only argues for stronger laws against illegal immigration but sharp curbs on legal immigration.
Joining South Carolina in the lawsuit are the states of Kansas, Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Virginia.
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