(USNewsMag.com) – President Joe Biden announced a plan April 13 to allow recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to be eligible for affordable health care coverage through Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act insurance marketplace.
Under the new proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services, the definition of who is considered to be present lawfully is being expanded which allows for DACA recipients to be eligible for the health care programs. The rule allows affordable health insurance to be expanded to 580,000 DACA recipients.
When eligible DACA recipients apply through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, the expanded access could allow eligible recipients to qualify for income-based financial assistance.
The DACA program, which allows children of migrants who arrived illegally in the U.S. to be granted temporary legal status, began in 2012 under the Obama administration. The program was a way to prevent deportation as well as to provide a path toward working and paying taxes legally in the U.S. as adults. Biden has sought to strengthen the program, calling on Congress to pass legislation that includes a path to become U.S. citizens for DACA recipients.
A 2020 decision by the Supreme Court overturned former President Donald Trump’s order to end the DACA program that was put in place during his first year in office.
However, in 2021, a federal judge ruled that former President Barack Obama did not have the authority to stop undocumented children from being deported and that when he took office, Biden did not have the authority to renew the program. The judge’s order blocked the processing of new DACA recipients.
In October 2022, the Biden administration implemented a rule which turned the DACA program into a federal regulation. The legality of the move will be ruled on by a federal judge in Texas.
According to Customs and Border Protection, in 2022 more than 150,000 unaccompanied minors entered the U.S.
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