“This isn’t about health care for undocumented immigrants—that’s already against the law,” said Sen. Mark Warner. “It’s about the fact that Republicans are intentionally skyrocketing your premiums”
The chaos continues. For the first time since Donald Trump’s first term, the federal government has shut down, jeopardizing pay for dedicated federal employees and affecting a vast array of services for Americans, including U.S. military veterans, students, travelers, national parks and museum visitors, just to name a few. You’ll never guess who Trump and his lying cronies believe is responsible for the shut down: immigrants. The administration is yet again pointing the finger at its go-to group when it finds the need to distract Americans from its failures.
Health care tax credits keep health care accessible and affordable for millions of Americans — instead of working with Democrats to lower health care costs, Republicans shut down the government.
— Congresswoman Nanette Barragán (@repbarragan.bsky.social) 2025-10-01T17:02:21.716Z
“The central Democratic demand is about health care,” and “Trump and Republican leaders have refused to negotiate,” Jonathan Cohn writes at The Bulwark newsletter. “And after flailing about with a few different arguments—including a preposterous claim that Democrats just want to pad the profits of insurance companies—they have settled on a new line: that Democrats want to fund health care for ‘illegal aliens.’”
“The Democrats want Illegal Aliens, many of them VIOLENT CRIMINALS, to receive FREE Healthcare,” Trump falsely said. This is “not something that we made up,” said Vice President JD Vance, who made up the notorious lie that Haitian neighbors in Ohio were stealing and eating pets. “Democrats are choosing health care for illegal aliens over American troop pay,” stooped Speaker Mike Johnson’s office. Meanwhile, Texas Senator Ted Cruz joined Vance in defending “racist” and “vulgar” deepfakes that Trump has been posting online to mock members of the opposing party.
Immigrants don’t get government health care—they subsidize ours.
— Sawyer Hackett (@sawyerhackett.bsky.social) 2025-10-02T20:19:52.183Z
Repeating a pernicious lie over and over again simply doesn’t make it true, as America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas said this week. Despite the fact that undocumented immigrant communities pay billions to help subsidize federal programs for everybody else – undocumented workers paid $25.7 billion into Social Security and $6.4 billion into Medicare in 2022 alone – back here in reality, they’re simply not eligible for the federal healthcare benefits that Republicans are accusing them of seeking to access.
Individuals “who are in the United States unlawfully cannot get federally funded health insurance,” as Cohn noted at The Bulwark. “They cannot sign up for Medicaid. They cannot get federally subsidized coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s online marketplaces. In other words, what Trump, Vance and the other Republicans are saying is just not true.”
“CLAIM: Democrats shut down the government because they want to give free health care to immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally,” the AP said. “THE FACTS: This is false.” In its fact check, CNN said that not only have undocumented individuals “never been eligible for Obamacare subsidies,” the administration actually narrowed the eligibility of some immigrants who have legal status as part of this past summer’s Big, Ugly Budget.
“Medicaid may help cover emergency care at hospitals for undocumented immigrants who would otherwise qualify for the program,” CNN continued, “but this is not considered health insurance coverage” and accounts for just 1% of this spending. It needs to be said that no one in a medical crisis should be turned away from emergency services. That’s simply a matter of basic human decency.
That fact is that it’s the administration’s policies – not the undocumented workers who help sustain essential industries and boost our economy year after year – that are quickly making insurance premiums and other living expenses unaffordable for working families.
“Undocumented immigrants are not eligible to enroll in federally funded health coverage under existing law or Democrats’ funding proposal — but millions of American citizens will see their health care premiums double next year if Republicans keep refusing to act,” said Washington Senator Patty Murray. “These lies are pissing me off,” said Virginia Senator Mark Warner. “This isn’t about health care for undocumented immigrants—that’s already against the law. It’s about the fact that Republicans are intentionally skyrocketing your premiums.”
House Committee on the Budget Ranking Member Brandan Boyle said that the 22 million Americans who receive health care tax credits could see an increase of over $1,000 annually. Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock shared a message he received from a constituent showing their insurance premium tripling from last year:
I was sent this by a Georgian this morning. 2025 premiums vs 2026 premiums for someone making $65k a year.Republicans in Washington did this.This is what I'm fighting to stop. This is what’s at stake in this shutdown fight.
— Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (@warnock.senate.gov) 2025-10-01T18:33:00.683Z
But not only are undocumented immigrants not to blame for the administration’s shutdown, daily living costs are rising in part because the administration is busy attacking immigrant agricultural workers despite the first Trump administration previously declaring them “essential” during the pandemic.
“Immigration raids have hurt major growing areas, leaving crops unharvested at California farms and scared off workers at dairy farms in New York and other states,” CNN reported, noting shortages within the industry as the administration’s raids have been ramping up in both size and callousness. “Since January, 1.2 million foreign-born workers have left the labor force,” the report said. “Agricultural employment dropped 6.5% from March to July, a loss of about 155,000 workers, reversing two years of growth.”
The results have been completely predictable: food prices “last month rose at their fastest pace in three years,” CNN said. And as federal workers are now being forced to sit at their kitchen tables to figure out if they can pay for next month’s grocery bills, the administration says its mass deportation apparatus is what’s actually essential and will continue on uninterrupted during the shutdown.
“All core immigration enforcement operations — from Border Patrol to Immigration and Customs Enforcement — will continue without interruption, according to two administration officials granted anonymity to discuss agency planning,” POLITICO reported. And, it’s by design. “Law enforcement personnel in past shutdowns have been considered essential, but ICE, for example, is further buffered by mandatory funding included in the One Big Beautiful Bill.”
Everyday people regardless of legal immigration status are hurting, but rather than addressing the completely solvable issues that plague families worrying about how they’ll pay for next week’s groceries or if U.S. citizen kids will still have their undocumented farmworker parents here at home come Christmas, the administration is trying to pit us against each other by using a tired and easily disproven lie in hopes that we won’t notice that its policies are not working for us, but rather for private prison executives and billionaires.
Remember: The goal is to divide by racializing working people’s anxieties (I mean, Trump’s sombrero memes say it all) about their financial situation, making a false argument that your immigrant neighbor is taking something at your direct expense when the truth is that it’s the policies that are to blame. We shouldn’t fall for the lies – and we need to keep demanding better of those in power.
“This Republican shutdown is all based on a lie told by Speaker Johnson and Vice President Vance,” said Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Adriano Espaillat. “They continue to incorrectly state undocumented people are eligible for health care subsidies. That is a lie. So we are here. They are the majority in the House of Representatives, they are the majority in the Senate, they control the White House and some say they also control the Supreme Court. They have absolute control of the government. This shutdown is the Republican shutdown.”
