(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday that it has banned illegal aliens from accessing its taxpayer-funded programs.
In a news release, HHS said that this “significant policy shift” is meant “to restore compliance with federal law and ensure that taxpayer-funded program benefits intended for the American people are not diverted to subsidize illegal aliens.”
This news follows the Small Business Administration’s May announcement that it would be eliminating policies that fund illegal border crossers via taxpayer dollars.
Likewise, HHS’ actions follow the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Homeland Security’s May announcement that they are ending “taxpayer-funded housing for illegal foreign nationals.”
All of these official changes related to illegal aliens are in response to Trump’s February executive order entitled “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders.”
The order “directed federal agencies to stop funding public benefits for foreign nationals living illegally in the U.S.,” as The Center Square reported.
HHS’ policy change came into being after the department “formally rescinded a 1998 interpretation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), issued during the Clinton Administration, which improperly extended certain federal public benefits to illegal aliens.”
“For over two decades, the 1998 policy improperly narrowed the scope of PRWORA, undercutting the law by allowing illegal aliens to access programs Congress intended only for the American people,” the release said.
“With this update, HHS is complying with the law – ensuring that federal benefits are administered with transparency, legal integrity, and fairness to the American people,” the release said.
Director of Policy Studies Jessica M. Vaughan at the Center for Immigration Studies told The Center Square that HHS’ action is “long overdue.”
The Center for Immigration Studies is an “independent, non-partisan, non-profit, research organization,” according to its website.
“Illegal aliens should not receive taxpayer-funded child care or other non-emergency health and welfare programs,” Vaughan told The Center Square. “Access to these programs should be preserved for Americans and legal immigrants.”
Vaughan said that “nearly 30 years ago, Congress decided that American taxpayers should not have to pay for welfare benefits and other services to illegal aliens.”
“Over the years, some administrations, starting with President Bill Clinton, have tried to protect some benefits for illegal aliens, and have carved out exceptions to this rule by changing the plain meaning of what a taxpayer-funded benefit is,” Vaughan said.
“Now we are at the point where more than 60% of illegal alien households are accessing some form of welfare, which is an enormous cost for taxpayers, and which limits the availability of these benefits to the Americans who need them,” Vaughan said.
“Many American community leaders have learned the hard way in the last four years that generous social service programs like guaranteed access to shelter and health services are unsustainable with mass migration,” Vaughan said.
“Numerous studies have shown that this is because on balance illegal alien households contribute less in taxes than they receive in public benefits,” Vaughan said.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in the department’s release: “For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans’ tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration.”
“Today’s action changes that – it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people,” Kennedy said.
The release additionally explained that “the notice establishing the revised policy takes effect immediately upon publication in the Federal Register and has a 30-day comment period,” and that “HHS will issue further guidance to affected programs to ensure full implementation.”
The HHS’ announcement along with other departments’ similar actions comes four years after Texas and 13 states ”sued to ensure that a federal public charge rule remained in effect, which requires foreign nationals to prove they can financially support themselves prior to being admitted to the U.S.,” as The Center Square reported.
