About 90,000 people covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in Texas and a half-million nationwide are barred from enrolling in the Affordable Care Act, at least temporarily, under a ruling issued this week by a federal judge in North Dakota.
The order by U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor was handed down in a case brought by Republican attorneys general in 19 states, including Texas, who argue in court documents that their states will suffer “irreparable harm through the costly public benefits they must expend” to provide health coverage for people who do not have express legal authorization to be in the United States.
Traynor’s order, issued Monday, does not decide the final outcome of the lawsuit, only that the 19 states that filed the suit “have proven a fair chance of prevailing” when the case goes to trial.
Still, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton hailed the order as a major victory for Texas and said it validates other court actions he has brought against the Democratic Biden administration over federal immigration policy.
“The court cited Texas’s numerous wins against the DACA program as a basis for granting the injunction and stay,” the three-term Republican said on X, formerly Twitter. “We prevented yet another attempt by the Biden Administration to spend our hard-earned tax dollars on radically unpopular policies that put illegal aliens ahead of America citizens.”
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The suit was filed after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this year determined that children who entered the United States in the company of adults without authorization to be in the country have legal standing to be in the country. The Republican attorneys general disputed that ruling, saying the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, does not go that far.
Traynor, who was appointed to the federal bench in 2019 by President Donald Trump, found merit in that assertion.
“As it currently stands, the ACA does not allow federal healthcare subsidies or coverage for aliens who are unlawfully present in the United States,” the judge wrote, adding “it is for Congress to determine who qualifies for lawful presence status, not agencies.”
The attorneys general also argued that granting people without legal residency status the opportunity to seek subsidized health coverage, sometimes called Obamacare, will effectively invite them to remain in states where such benefits are accessible. In his ruling, Traynor agreed.
“The Court concludes, through a common-sense inference, that the powerful incentive of health care will encourage aliens who may otherwise vacate the Plaintiff States to remain,” Traynor wrote.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Austin called Traynor’s ruling misguided.
“Coming here as children, most of the nearly 90,000 DACA recipients in Texas have never called any other place home,” Doggett said in a statement to the American-Statesman. “As hard-working youth, they have strengthened our communities and significantly boosted our economy. Denying access to affordable health coverage is unfair to them and generally harmful to public health.”
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The case, titled the State of Kansas v. the United States, has Texas, Ohio, Idaho, Nebraska, South Carolina, Kansas, Alabama, Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Florida and Arkansas joining Kansas as plaintiffs.
The states named as defendants are New Jersey, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
Health organizations also named as defendants include the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association, Epilepsy Foundation of American Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Paxton also has filed court action, which is still pending, seeking to have the DACA program declared unlawful. In September 2023, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen of the Southern District of Texas ruled that DACA is illegal and the matter is pending in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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