Protecting Health Care Access for DACA Recipients: NJ's Leadership in the Face of Trump's Second Term
With less than a week to go until President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Democrats are ramping up their resistance to the incoming administration by focusing on health care access for undocumented immigrants.
Democratic New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin is leading an effort with other states to safeguard access to government health insurance for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program — immigrants who came to the country as children but do not qualify for such insurance because they lack legal status.
Protecting Health Care Access
The push also involves Arizona; California; Colorado; Delaware; Hawaii; Illinois; Maryland; Michigan; Minnesota; New Mexico; Nevada; Oregon; and Vermont. It comes as Democratic attorneys general are preparing to return to the front lines of the resistance to Trump’s agenda. Top prosecutors in blue and blue-leaning states have spent months preparing to battle the incoming administration in court over everything from civil rights to health care.
Wednesday’s announced motion to defend a Biden administration health care rule is among the first legal salvos launched by a Democratic attorney general in anticipation of Trump’s second presidency.
“We know that President-elect Trump plans to undo protections and health care for our Dreamers, and states like New Jersey are ready to fight back,” Platkin said in a statement. “Dreamers are a critical part of the New Jersey community, and America is the only country they know.”
Last year, President Joe Biden announced a final rule that will open up Obamacare plans to these recipients, also referred to as Dreamers. But that was met with a legal challenge over the summer: Republican Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach led more than a dozen other attorneys general in a suit in U.S. District Court to block that effort. Platkin and the other attorneys general are now raising concerns that the Trump administration will no longer defend the final rule.
Because of the legal challenge, the final rule has not been able to be implemented in every state. It is, however, in effect in New Jersey, meaning that Dreamers are able to use the state-run exchange. Platkin’s office argued that states that operate their own exchanges benefit from involving DACA recipients because “larger and more diverse risk pools may keep premiums lower for everyone.”
Beyond DACA, Democratic attorneys general have outlined a raft of potential legal concerns with Trump’s immigration plans. They are girding to challenge him if his administration attempts to withhold federal aid if local law officials do not assist in immigration enforcement — a battle they fought and won in his first term. They are poised to pounce if immigration officials begin violating people’s due process as they attempt to execute Trump’s mass deportations. And they are similarly prepared to strike if Trump attempts to follow through with his threats to end birthright citizenship.
Republicans have long hit Democrats over immigration, tying it to crime and public safety — a message that, in part, led to the GOP’s gains across the country. Even in New Jersey, Trump had a better performance in last year’s election compared to his past campaigns. Democrats are now tooling with how the party addresses immigration and how it pushes back on Trump.
Attorneys general in New Jersey and other Democratic-leaning states have vowed to utilize legal tools as the Trump administration kicks its policy plans into gear.
There are more than 16,000 DACA recipients in New Jersey, according to Platkin’s office. The Democrats warned of the economic and social impacts of eliminating the rule, pointing to the billions DACA recipients contribute in taxes and the support they provide to families, including children who are U.S. citizens.
New Jersey has previously led efforts for legal protections for DACA recipients, including voicing support for the final rule in 2023 and intervening in a years-old suit spearheaded by Texas that sought to end DACA.
