“The law prohibits undocumented immigrants from getting payments from Medicare, Medicaid, or the ACA,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Oct. 1.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) disagreed. “By some estimates, 20 million illegal aliens came [here] from every country, all around the world,” Johnson said. “[Democrats] gave them all this parole status so that they could get enrolled onto taxpayer benefits.”
The war of words erupted over Democrats’ demand that all health care provisions of Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” be repealed as a condition of reopening the government.
Short answer? It all depends on how you define “unlawful.”
Federal law allows some immigrants—termed “qualified aliens”—to apply for Medicaid.
That includes people lawfully admitted for permanent residence. But there are others too.
Parolees can enroll, too. These are people with no legal authority to be here who were “paroled” into the country for humanitarian reasons.
More than 2.8 million people were paroled into the country during the Biden administration, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Refugees and those granted asylum can enroll too, and people whose deportation order has been withheld, victims of domestic violence or sex trafficking, and several other categories.
Simply applying for asylum will let you remain in the country temporarily, but that’s not enough to qualify for Medicaid.
Some states have a workaround for that.
California enrolls people who have applied for Temporary Protected Status. That’s a separate process, but the application alone is enough to qualify for MediCal.
According to the ACA Marketplace, people who are “lawfully residing” in the country can sign up for Medicaid, CHIP, or the ACA Marketplace.
This term, according to the ACA website, includes all qualified aliens, as well as those with work visas, student visas, lawful temporary residents, and people under deferred action or deferred enforced departure.
So who’s right?
Qualified aliens and people lawfully residing in the United States would likely be deemed “documented” immigrants.
But that has nothing to do with whether those folk had legal authorization to enter or remain permanently in the country.
Here’s where the shutdown comes in.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” narrowed the list of people eligible for federal health benefits to match the Republicans’ version.
That includes U.S citizens, lawful permanent residents, certain Cubans and Haitians living in the United States, and those living here under a prior agreement with the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
Democrats want to repeal that, going back to the full list of qualified aliens and lawful residents.
How many non-citizens are on Medicaid? Nobody knows for sure.
But that’s what the fight is about.
—Lawrence Wilson
BOOKMARKS
Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels. “The president determined these cartels are non-state armed groups, designated them as terrorist organizations, and determined that their actions constitute an armed attack against the United States,” an administration memo obtained by the Associated Press says.
An attack at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in the United Kingdom has left two people dead and several others injured. Authorities said the suspect attempted to ram his car into locals outside the synagogue, and stabbed two people—including a security guard—before being shot.
Oklahoma has been targeting illegal immigrant truckers with commercial driver’s licenses, and announced earlier this week that the operation had netted over 125 people so far. One driver had been issued a New York license under the title “No Name Given.”
California needs to mail out postcards to correct its 2025 Voter Information Guide, since the first version contains a misprint. The error accidentally identifies a proposed congressional area as District 22, when it should actually say “District 27.”
Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) says “far-left” groups are to blame for the government shutdown. The groups are driving “Democratic Party leaders to put on a show of their opposition to President Trump,” Golden said in a statement.
—Stacy Robinson
