TN among states filing to block Biden effort to extend full healthcare benefits to illegals

Fifteen states, including Tennessee, filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the Biden administration over a rule that is expected to allow 100,000 immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children to enroll next year in the federal Affordable Care Act's health insurance.

The states are seeking to block the rule from taking effect Nov. 1.

"The rule of law means if you don't like what a law says, you work to achieve a legislative change — you don't get to pretend the law says what you want," said Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti in a statement. "This attempt to unlawfully steer broad health care benefits to illegal immigrants is part of a larger pattern of an administration that fails to take our constitutional institutions seriously. Instead of engaging in the hard work of passing legislation, we see endless attempts to illegally rewrite laws through regulation alongside an effort to delegitimate the courts that can check this executive overreach."

The lawsuit argues the rule violates a 1996 welfare reform law and the ACA. They also said it would encourage more immigrants to come to the U.S. illegally, burdening the states and their public school systems.

Besides Tennessee, the other states involved in the lawsuit are Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota and Virginia.

Biden said in May in outlining the rule that he was "committed to providing Dreamers the support they need to succeed." The Biden administration is shielding them from deportation.

The "Dreamers" and their advocates have said they're young people who had little or no choice in coming to the U.S. and years later are fully integrated into their communities.

The so-called "Dreamers" have been ineligible for government-subsidized health insurance programs because they did not meet the definition of having a "lawful presence" in the U.S. The states filing the lawsuit in North Dakota, led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, said declaring their lawful presence by rule is "illogical on its face," given that they'd face deportation without Biden administration intervention.

"Subsidized health insurance through the ACA is a valuable public benefit that encourages unlawfully present alien beneficiaries to remain in the United States," the lawsuit said.