JD Vance calls out Democrats over plan to give illegal immigrants taxpayer-funded healthcare
Vance criticized Democrats for attempting to reverse Trump-era restrictions on taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal immigrants. Highlighting emergency hospital care and parolee eligibility programs, he said the Democrats’ proposal would restore funding previously ended by Republicans.
Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday (October 1) criticized Democrats for what he called their “preposterous” claim that they are not attempting to provide taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits to illegal immigrants. Speaking to Fox News, Vance said the Biden-era federal funding for emergency healthcare, ended under the Trump administration, is now being sought for reinstatement by Democrats.
“They say, ‘We're not actually trying to give healthcare benefits to illegal aliens,’” Vance was quoted a saying in the interview. “And here's why it's not true.”
Biden-era programs targeted
Vance highlighted two specific Biden-era programs that he said explicitly provided taxpayer healthcare funding to illegal immigrants, which were terminated by the Trump administration.
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Emergency Healthcare Funding:
“The first program provided illegal immigrants emergency healthcare at hospitals,” Vance said. “We turned off that funding because, of course, we want American citizens to benefit from those hospital services, not to be taxed, and then to have those hospital services go to illegal aliens.”
Parolee Eligibility for Healthcare:
Vance also cited a second program, which gave mass parole to millions of illegal immigrants while making them eligible for taxpayer-funded healthcare. “In the ‘one big, beautiful bill,’ President Trump and congressional Republicans turned off that money to healthcare funding for illegal aliens,” he said, referring to legislation passed during the Trump administration.
Democrats' current proposal
According to Vance, the Democrats’ proposal to reopen the government would reverse these Trump-era restrictions.
“The first thing that they put out to reopen the government, they actually turned that money for healthcare benefits for illegal aliens back on,” he said.
The White House’s Rapid Response X account shared an image from the Democrat proposal, showing the subsection of the “big, beautiful bill” regarding emergency healthcare for illegal immigrants that would be repealed, along with supporting documents detailing the original legislation.
“So it's not something that we made up,” Vance added. “It’s not a talking point. It is in the text of the bill that they initially gave to us to reopen the government. It's preposterous for [Democrats] to run away from it now.”
Focus on reopening Government
Despite his criticisms, Vance emphasized that the immediate priority should be ending the government shutdown.
“But look, let's set that all to the side. Let's open up the government,” he said on Fox News. “Let's negotiate on all these healthcare policy issues.”
He reiterated Republicans’ position on healthcare for citizens versus non-citizens: “Obviously, we're not going to support healthcare benefits for illegal aliens, but we will work with them to lower healthcare costs for American citizens if they're willing to do so.”