Op-ed: The Hidden Cost to Dem Benefits for Migrants as Government Shutdown Continues
By Jason Richwine on October 6, 2025
As the government shutdown continues, the media seem fixated on one Republican talking point: that the Democrats want health care benefits for illegal immigrants. Of course they do.
Part of the way Democrats try to claim otherwise is semantics.
For example, President Joe Biden ballooned the number of illegal immigrants with Temporary Protected Status from 400,000 to 1.2 million during his term. TPS holders have no legal right to live here, but the government has promised not to deport them until their home country resolves what is supposed to be a major destabilizing condition — a natural disaster, for example, although past administrations have tended to grant and renew TPS for far less.
Similarly, Biden allowed 2.9 million inadmissible migrants to enter the US via “parole,” which, like TPS, gives them a fixed time period to stay before facing removal.
Because these migrants are still considered inadmissible and removable, and their deferred status is temporary, the Department of Homeland Security and outside experts continue to count them as illegal immigrants.
Prior to passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, parolees could access Medicaid after a five-year waiting period, just as legal permanent residents can, and they could also qualify for Obama¬care subsidies after one year. TPS holders for their part could access Obamacare subsidies.
The OBBB sunsets all of these privileges, but the Democrats’ proposed budget would restore them. Therefore, the claim that congressional Democrats want to give public health benefits to illegal immigrants is indeed true.
https://cis.org/Richwine/Oped-Hidden-Cost-Dem-Benefits-Migrants-Government-Shutdown-Continues
