Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall joined a coalition of 16 states in filing a lawsuit to challenge the Biden administration's effort to expand the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also called Obamacare, to illegal aliens.
The broad plan announced by the Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) would make more than 200,000 deferred actions for childhood arrival (DACA) recipients eligible for taxpayer-subsidized health plans, including 3,460 in Alabama. The plan is set to go into effect November 1.
DACA temporarily delays the deportation of people without documentation who came to the U.S. as children.
“The latest assault on the American worker by the Biden-Harris administration is forcing tax-paying American citizens to subsidize Obamacare for illegal aliens,” Marshall said. “Not only is this unconstitutional, but it is just plain wrong. First, this administration is demanding that hardworking Americans pay for someone else’s college degree, then it forces them to pay for medical procedures that violate their beliefs, and now they want to dictate paying for healthcare for people who shouldn’t even be in this country. At some point, the taxpayers are going to run out of money to give the government to fund their ill-conceived entitlement programs.”
The lawsuit claims that HHS’s attempt violates the letter of the ACA since the law explicitly states that ACA provisions are limited to “citizens or nationals of the United States and individuals ‘lawfully present’ in the United States.” By including illegal aliens, the lawsuit claims the Biden administration is violating the provisions outlined in the ACA.
The complaint also asserts that the proposed rule violates a federal law prohibiting providing public benefits to aliens.
Marshall is joined the suit by attorneys general from Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia.
“The rule of law means if you don't like what a law says, you work to achieve a legislative change—you don't get to pretend the law says what you want," said Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. "This attempt to unlawfully steer broad health care benefits to illegal immigrants is part of a larger pattern of an administration that fails to take our constitutional institutions seriously. Instead of engaging in the hard work of passing legislation, we see endless attempts to illegally rewrite laws through regulation alongside an effort to delegitimate the courts that can check this executive overreach."
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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