Last year, the Biden administration did the right thing by issuing a rule that expanded ACA coverage to nearly 130,000 uninsured DACA recipients. Not only do Dreamers pay billions in tax dollars every year to help fund federal programs like Social Security and Medicare, it makes public health sense because a healthy community benefits everyone. “DACA recipients, like all Dreamers, are Americans, plain and simple,” the Biden administration said. “The United States is their home, and they should enjoy the same access to health care as their fellow Americans.”
But in a cruel and senseless decision last week, the Trump administration has announced that it’s seeking to reverse this rule and kick DACA recipients who have since enrolled for coverage back onto the rolls of the uninsured and prevent many others from applying.
In a statement, the Trump administration’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said that rolling back the rule “would ensure that taxpayer dollars to subsidize ACA coverage go only to lawfully present consumers who are eligible to enroll in subsidized coverage through the Marketplaces.” But this statement intentionally ignores that DACA recipients are taxpayers who help subsidize coverage for Americans. NC Newsline:
Each year, DACA recipients work and earn nearly $27.9 billion, paying federal, state and local taxes, according to a study by the left- leaning think tank the Center for American Progress. The CAP study found that DACA recipients contribute nearly $2.1 billion to Social Security and Medicare, which they do not qualify for because they are not permanent legal residents.
But as the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) said in response to the Trump administration’s proposed rule, “this isn’t about costs or lack of resources, it’s about cruelty.” Despite Trump’s empty words following the 2024 election that “we have to do something about the Dreamers,” it’s Trump who (unsuccessfully) tried to end DACA during his first term – and it’s his political allies who have since picked up the baton to try to again kill DACA through the courts.
Project 2025, the authoritarian plan to take a sledgehammer to our federal programs, roll back our rights, and target immigrants or anyone perceived to be one, called for running out Dreamers’ protections by simply eliminating staff time in order to not process their renewal paperwork at all. Project 2025’s chief architect, Russ Vought, now wields immense power as Trump’s Senate-confirmed Office of Management and Budget Director and has stated that he wants federal workers “to be traumatically affected.” But Dreamers will be impacted too.
“The Trump administration’s proposal to strip DACA recipients’ access to affordable health coverage is a huge step backward for the wellbeing of everyone in our communities and further unmasks Trump’s transparent and hollow claims to care about ‘Dreamers,’” responded NILC President Kica Matos. “This cruel attempt to undo a hard-won victory for immigrant youth would reimpose unnecessary obstacles that for years kept DACA recipients disproportionately uninsured, preventing many of them from getting lifesaving medical care. NILC has and will continue to fight alongside immigrant youth and other allies to bring down those barriers, because we know that all of us are better off when everyone can get quality and affordable health care.”
As America’s Voice Research Associate and former DACA recipient Yuna Oh stated, “We will be unafraid to go to a simple doctor checkup and have the cost break our savings. We can plan out our future a little more with stability, rather than living on the edge.”
“Until a rule is finalized, DACA recipients’ current enrollment in health coverage remains the same,” Matos continued in the NILC statement. “The proposed rule makes clear that this administration will continue to waste time on policies that hurt our families, communities, and collective well-being rather than working to actually make the United States healthier.”
In another important development concerning DACA recipients, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’ January decision that could reopen first-time applications has officially gone into effect, United We Dream said. However, that decision “also included details specifying that access to work permits would be removed from tens of thousands of DACA recipients in Texas specifically,” the organization continued. Because the administration has not yet issued any official guidance, and the ruling must still go back to Judge Andrew Hanen to determine when and how it takes effect, advocates say they are “just playing it by ear to see what the course of action will be” based on what he decides, UWD’s Monse Montalvo told Houston Public Media.
In a statement, the Home Is Here Campaign urged “current individuals who are considering applying for the first time to exercise caution, speak to a trusted attorney first, and understand that there are no guarantees under this violent, anti-immigrant administration that Trump will not access and abuse people’s personal data in order to target and detain them.”
“No matter what comes next, we know our home is here,” the statement continued. “We will always fight back to be able to live and thrive in the places we call home. The Home is Here campaign will continue to share updates with our communities as we wait to hear from USCIS and the Trump administration so that potential applicants can make the best decision for themselves.”
The years-long attacks from Trump and his political allies have deeply disrupted the lives of DACA beneficiaries and the many Dreamers who have been unable to apply for first-time protections due to GOP-led lawsuits. Nearly 100,000 undocumented students who graduated from high school in 2023 do not qualify for DACA at all, highlighting the continued need to pass permanent relief like the American Dream and Promise Act of 2025. “I’ve always relied on DACA,” DACA recipient and Jesuit university graduate Alma told America magazine. “It has helped me be able to have a [driver’s] license…live without fear and [to] work.”
But Trump’s unsparing arrests and deportations, promise to even target legal immigrants like green card holders, and record of targeting Dreamers during his first term have left many DACA recipients on edge even if their status should protect them from deportation.
“DACA recipients have always been waiting for a pathway to citizenship,” Alma continued. “But I think about all these other students who are in a similar situation, but can’t live in the light. It has given me a way to not live in the shadows.” Anabel Mendoza, director of communications at UWD, told NBC News last month that “even if you have DACA, that doesn’t mean that you are off the table, especially when you have an administration that has been so vocal about the fact that they see anybody who is an undocumented immigrant, who came to this country undocumented, as having done wrong and as being a target.”
RELATED: Nearly 100,000 Undocumented Students Who Graduated From High School Last Year Can’t Apply for DACA
