You may have noticed that the Federal Government has been shutdown most of the week after failing to reach an agreement over the Federal Budget. The Trump Administration and the President himself have been repeating that the reason the US Government is shutdown right now is because Democrats would not agree to remove billions of dollars of spending for health insurance coverage for “illegal” or undocumented immigrants. Donald Trump has said multiple times that the Democrats were spending “billions” on the most “top-tier, most premium” health coverage. At one point he said, “this is the Cadillac of health coverage.”
Yesterday and today Republican lawmakers were on the news doing interviews and repeating these talking points. It has been reported that President Trump made Federal Employees set their away-from -the-office email responses to say that they were out of the office because Democrats shutdown the Federal Government over healthcare for “illegals.” The WhiteHouse.gov website has been replaced with propaganda on its home page which greets users with a clock counting the number of days, hours, minutes, and seconds that the “Democrats have shut the Government down” and a massive headline reading, “FACT: Democrats Shut Down Government Over Free Healthcare for Illegals.”
| THE CLAIM | Democratic lawmakers in Congress refused to negotiate with Republicans regarding billions of dollars in the budget that is being used to pay for free healthcare for illegal immigrants in the U.S. |
| THE TRUTH | This is not true. Various restrictions in federal law prohibit certain noncitizens from receiving coverage through federal health care programs. You can read Congressional Report R47351 Noncitizens Access to Healthcare, a report that is still published on congress.gov and explains this in detail. Due to the existing law making noncitizens with no immigration status ineligible for Federal healthcare benefits Congress could not have changed their eligibility with the reconciliation law that lead to the shutdown of the Federal Government. The claim that Democratic lawmakers or any subgroup of lawmakers were trying to do use the reconciliation law to give healthcare to people that are in the country illegally is absolutely false since it could not be possible. Not only are noncitizens in the US without immigration status not eligible for any health insurance that is in any way subsidized by the Federal Government but the Congressional Report explains how some noncitizens who are in the country legally and working with employment authorization but for an employer that does not provide employer-based health insurance coverage CANNOT enroll in plans offered by the Government. As such, some noncitizens in the US legally and working with authorization face challenges accessing health services due to their lack of health insurance coverage and inability to obtain even private health insurance that they would pay for themselves. Individuals must meet general eligibility criteria for federal health care coverage programs, including applicable age and income criteria. The eligibility requirements are the same for U.S. citizens by birth, naturalized citizens, and legal permanent residents. Legal permanent residents are eligible for many of the same benefits as US citizens once they have been living in the US for five years which makes sense since they have been granted the privilege of permanent residency and they pay into the government with their taxes the same way citizens do. There were exceptions that existed under the law which allow States to waive the five-year waiting period for legal residents and allow some children who are lawfully present in the US to receive healthcare services through government programs (which is defined as having been paroled . See Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA), Public Law 111-3. Section 214 of CHIPRA permits States to cover certain children and pregnant women in both Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) who are “lawfully residing in the United States” as described in section 1903(v)(4) and 2107(e)(l)(J) of the Social Security Act (the Act). The section 214 option may be applied to pregnant women in Medicaid and CHIP and/or to children up to age 19 for CHIP or up to age 21 for Medicaid (including targeted low-income children described in section 1905(u)(2)(B) of the Act). Congress ended federal funding for many lawfully present immigrants for Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP), Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Anyone person seeking Federal Benefits must apply through the same official process and be determined to be eligible whether they are a US citizen, legal permanent resident, or a noncitizen lawfully present in the US who fits one of the narrow exceptions described above. While noncitizens in the US without immigration status are ineligible for government subsidized healthcare many, if not most, pay into these programs just like citizens and permanent residents do., . |
Snopes.com–the website that investigates and reports on the truthfulness of popular internet memes, chain emails, and claims by politicians–has a page titled, Democrats didn’t shut down government to fund health care for ‘illegal aliens.’ Here’s context. Snopes concludes that the claims being made are completely false. They found there to be no truth to the claims and no way they could
(b) Qualified alien For purposes of this chapter, the term “qualified alien” means an alien who, at the time the alien applies for, receives, or attempts to receive a Federal public benefit, is—
(1) an alien who is lawfully admitted for permanent residence under the Immigration and Nationality Act [8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.],
(2) an alien who is granted asylum under section 208 of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1158],
(3) a refugee who is admitted to the United States under section 207 of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1157],
(4) an alien who is paroled into the United States under section 212(d)(5) of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1182(d)(5)] for a period of at least 1 year,
(5) an alien whose deportation is being withheld under section 243(h) of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1253] (as in effect immediately before the effective date of section 307 of division C of Public Law 104–208) or section 241(b)(3) of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1231(b)(3)] (as amended by section 305(a) of division C of Public Law 104–208),
(6) an alien who is granted conditional entry pursuant to section 203(a)(7) of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1153(a)(7)] as in effect prior to April 1, 1980,
(7) an alien who is a Cuban and Haitian entrant (as defined in section 501(e) of the Refugee Education Assistance Act of 1980), or
(8) an individual who lawfully resides in the United States in accordance with a Compact of Free Association referred to in section 1612(b)(2)(G) of this title.
Noncitizens Qualified to Apply for Federal Benefits
From 8 U.S. Code § 1641 – Definitions
(b) Qualified alien For purposes of this chapter, the term “qualified alien” means an alien who, at the time the alien applies for, receives, or attempts to receive a Federal public benefit, is—
(1) an alien who is lawfully admitted for permanent residence under the Immigration and Nationality Act [8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.],
(2) an alien who is granted asylum under section 208 of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1158],
(3) a refugee who is admitted to the United States under section 207 of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1157],
(4) an alien who is paroled into the United States under section 212(d)(5) of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1182(d)(5)] for a period of at least 1 year,
(5) an alien whose deportation is being withheld under section 243(h) of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1253] (as in effect immediately before the effective date of section 307 of division C of Public Law 104–208) or section 241(b)(3) of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1231(b)(3)] (as amended by section 305(a) of division C of Public Law 104–208),
(6) an alien who is granted conditional entry pursuant to section 203(a)(7) of such Act [8 U.S.C. 1153(a)(7)] as in effect prior to April 1, 1980,
(7) an alien who is a Cuban and Haitian entrant (as defined in section 501(e) of the Refugee Education Assistance Act of 1980), or
(8) an individual who lawfully resides in the United States in accordance with a Compact of Free Association referred to in section 1612(b)(2)(G) of this title.
The National Immigration Law Center explains this very well on their website:
Those making these claims justify them by citing the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the official scorekeeper for Congress. But they misrepresent the data.
CBO issued a letter in August 2025 stating that 1.2 noncitizens will lose ACA subsidy eligibility because of the new restrictions on immigrants. 900,000 people will lose health coverage due to no longer having an eligible immigration status and 300,000 due to the ban on low income green card holders receiving ACA coverage while they are in a Medicaid waiting period. Some have falsely asserted that these people are undocumented, but CBO said no such thing. All of those people losing health coverage are among the list of lawfully present immigrants above.
Many Immigrants Lawfully Present in the US Lost Access to Benefits Under The Affordable care Act, SNAP, and other programs
Congress ended federal funding for many lawfully present immigrants for Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP), Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Immigrants who lost access to benefits include:
- Refugees
- Asylum recipients
- People paroled into the U.S. for more than one year
- Survivors of trafficking and other crimes (people with T visas)
- Survivors of domestic violence (those with a petition under the Violence Against Women Act)
- People granted withholding of deportation/removal, and conditional entrants
The following groups of lawfully present immigrants lost eligibility for ACA subsidies:
- Green card holders who are in a Medicaid waiting period and earn under 100% of the federal poverty line
- People paroled into the U.S. for less than one year
- People with Temporary Protected Status
- People with a nonimmigrant visa
- People who have applied for T or U visas
- People granted employment authorization
- Family Unity beneficiaries
- Individuals granted Deferred Enforced Departure or deferred action (excluding DACA recipients who are now excluded due to Trump administration regulations)
- Individuals under the age of 14 with a pending application for adjustment of status, asylum, withholding of removal or for protection under the Convention Against Torture;
- Individuals granted withholding of removal under the regulations implementing the Convention Against Torture
- Individuals with a pending or approved petition for classification as a Special Immigrant Juvenile.