New Hampshire is joining 14 other states in a lawsuit that aims to block DACA recipients from receiving federally subsidized health insurance, Attorney General John Formella announced Friday.
DACA, formally known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, protects around a half-million undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children from deportation. They’re currently ineligible for subsidized health plans through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, as well as other federally funded health benefits.
Earlier this year, the Biden administration issued a new rule that allows DACA recipients to enroll in subsidized health plans as of Nov. 1.
The administration estimates around 100,000 people nationwide could gain insurance coverage through the change, noting the uninsured rate among DACA recipients is several times higher than in the population as a whole. In a 2021 survey, nearly half of DACA recipients said they’d delayed medical care due to their immigration status.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in North Dakota by a group of Republican attorneys general, seeks to invalidate that rule. They argue that federal law limits such benefits to those who are “lawfully present” in the country, and that DACA recipients aren’t included in that category.
“We believe this new CMS rule ignores the clear intent of Congress and threatens to misuse taxpayer money from New Hampshire and across the nation,” Formella said in a news release Friday.
New Hampshire has one of the smallest populations of DACA recipients in the country: around 230 people, according to the most recent federal data.
Despite the relatively few DACA recipients in the state, New Hampshire immigration attorney Bruno D’Britto said this lawsuit is about more than healthcare. He works with the Brazilian Council in Nashua and sees the suit as the latest in a series of efforts to undermine the program.
“Unfortunately, I’m not surprised,” he said. “DACA has been the biggest targeted individuals since Trump took office. It was one of the first things he tried to do, was end DACA.”
In response to questions from NHPR, the attorney general’s office said health care subsidies are a “valuable public benefit that encourages unlawfully present alien beneficiaries to remain in the United States,” thereby increasing state spending on schools, healthcare, public safety and other services.
The new rule “incentivizes DACA recipients, their children, and minors currently residing in New Hampshire whose parents illegally entered the United States to remain in New Hampshire,” Assistant Attorney General Brandon Chase said in an email.
Though DACA is only open to people who have been in the country since before June 2007, Chase said expanding benefits “could send a broader global message about the possibility of more lenient policies in the future” and encourage more people to enter the country illegally.
Dr. Marie Ramas, a family physician in Nashua, called the move short-sighted. She said making it harder to access basic health care only makes people sicker and ends up costing the health system more. She’s seen that first hand with her patients, many of whom are immigrants.
“One of the disadvantages that many of my patients had was not being able to get basic services like vaccinations, like prenatal care, and having delayed onset of care for chronic conditions,” she said.
Ramas said expanded health care access also benefits communities more broadly, and that would be the case if DACA recipients are offered coverage.
“Many ‘Dreamers,’ as we call them, have lived in the United States all their lives, they have gone to school with our neighbors, they have worked in essential fields,” she said.
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