US judge blocks Biden healthcare rule for DACA immigrants in some states

By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) – A U.S. judge in North Dakota has blocked the Biden administration from requiring 19 Republican-led states to provide health insurance coverage to immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor on Monday said a rule adopted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in May likely violates a federal law that prohibits giving public benefits to people who lack legal immigration status.

Traynor, who was appointed by Republican President-elect Donald Trump in his first term, blocked the rule from being applied in 19 states that sued in August pending the outcome of their case.

The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican whose office is spearheading the lawsuit, called the decision a “big win for the rule of law.” 

“Congress never intended that illegal aliens should receive Obamacare benefits. Indeed, two laws prohibit them from receiving such benefits,” Kobach said on social media platform X.

The National Immigration Law Center, which represents DACA recipients who intervened in the case to defend the rule, said it was considering its next steps.

The rule classifies participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program created in 2012 as “legally present” in the United States, allowing them to enroll in basic healthcare programs created by the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

But the states in their lawsuit say that because individuals have to lack legal status to enroll in DACA, they are by definition not legally present in the country. Nearly 50,000 DACA recipients live in the 19 states involved in the lawsuit, according to court filings. 

Traynor on Monday agreed with the states that the rule improperly encourages DACA recipients to remain in the United States illegally and forces states to spend millions of dollars on public services for them and their children.

The DACA program offers deportation relief and work permits to immigrants who were illegally brought to the U.S. or overstayed a visa as children. About 530,000 people are enrolled in the program, which remains subject to an ongoing legal fight.

Trump, an immigration hardliner, tried to end DACA during his first term but was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Trump campaign in May blasted the healthcare rule, calling it “unfair and unsustainable.”

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York, editing by Franklin Paul)