The Biden administration announced plans to allow Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients to apply for Medicaid and Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges. The decision is expected to affect hundreds of thousands of migrants living in the country without access to affordable healthcare.
“[The] This news is a huge win for DACA recipients and their families as a direct result of years of persistent organizing,” said Juliana Macedo do Nascimento, United We Dream’s deputy director for federal advocacy, in a press release. increase. “Receiving good, reliable health care is a human need, and this rule change will help more people get the life-saving health insurance they need to take care of themselves and their families. I mean.”
According to US Census Bureau data, more than 17% of Latino people are uninsured. One of the highest rates among her DACA recipients in the United States was ineligible for health care through the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, and other government subsidies. Organizers are now celebrating the decision by Joe Biden and the Department of Health and Human Services to remove what they say are “cruel and unnecessary” barriers to youth entitlement.
“This is great news for dreamers who have often delayed or avoided getting the health care they need,” said Lupe M. Rodriguez, executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, in a statement. “[Latinxs] We face constant barriers that do not give us the tools to stay healthy. Together with NAPAWF and many other supporters, we are proud to ensure that those of us who come here in search of a better life have access to human rights to health care so that we can better care for ourselves and our families. think. “
A study released last week by the U.S. Center for Immigration Policy at the University of California, San Diego. United We Dream. The National Center for Immigration Law; the Center for American Progress found that Dreamers continue to serve communities across the United States and their work strengthens local and national economies. Key findings of the study included that 63.6% of DACA recipients were less likely to continue their education and 65.3% were less likely to pursue new educational opportunities if DACA ended. included. Meanwhile, 46.6% of DACA recipients were less likely to seek a new job, 48.5% were less likely to report wage theft or other abuse by their employers, and 66.6% were less likely to pursue a vocational license. less sexual.
“For over a decade, DACA has had a transformative impact on my life, enabling me to go to school, work, and build a life with my family and loved ones in America. “And for more than a decade, DACA’s impermanence has left me and hundreds of thousands of immigrant youth like myself vulnerable to politicized court decisions and political I’ve been playing games with the future, and I’ve had a sense of urgency that the house I’ve built here could be overturned. It’s past time to pass sensible solutions.”
DACA is still being fought in court. In October 2022, in a lawsuit filed by Texas authorities, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the Texas District Court’s ruling that DACA is illegal, but does not allow the program to work for current recipients. We allowed it to stay that way. The termination of DACA means that approximately 600,000 recipients nationwide will be subject to deportation and forcibly removed from their communities.
“This is an important step, but the DACA program continues to come under attack, and millions of undocumented people without DACA still lack access to life-saving healthcare,” said Macedo Do. Nascimento said. “An attack on DACA could bring it back to the Supreme Court, but we need President Biden to protect DACA recipients and immigrant youth without DACA. All 11 million illegal immigrants must be able to obtain citizenship.”
Organizers believe expanding healthcare is a win, but by removing discrimination, health equity under the Immigration and Family Act Act that legally guarantees current immigrants eligibility for Medicaid and CHIP and continue to fight to pass all provisions of Access (HEAL) with a five-year waiting period and extension of ACA insurance eligibility to undocumented immigrants.
“We will continue to advocate for Congress to pass a pathway to citizenship that will provide the peace and stability DACA recipients and immigrant youth need to thrive,” Rodriguez said. . “At the Latina Institute, we believe that all of us should have access to the full range of health care options, regardless of any documentary status, so that individuals and families can live in health and dignity in our community. I applaud such a policy that encourages, and justice.