DACA Recipients Defend Access to Affordable Health Care in Court

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 20, 2024 

CONTACT
Juan Gastelum, NILC, [email protected], 213-375-3149 

Jossie Flor Sapunar, CASA, [email protected], 240-706-2624

DACA Recipients Defend Access to Affordable Health Care in Court

Bismarck, North Dakota – CASA, on behalf of its members, and Dania Quezada, a third-year law student with DACA at the University of Washington are seeking to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s regulation allowing DACA recipients to access health coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA).   

Represented by the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and Gibson Dunn, the individual and non-profit organization asked a federal district court today to join ongoing litigation after a small group of Republican-led states sued the federal government in August to stop the regulation. 

“It is now more important than ever to recognize that all people are deserving of access to quality healthcare,” said Dania Quezada. “At this table, there is room for all of us.” 

“Efforts to prevent expanding healthcare access are misguided and dangerous, placing the health and lives of too many at risk. CASA stands with NILC and immigrant communities across the country in opposing these efforts and strongly supports expanding access to care to all those who live and work in this country,” said Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA, national organization serving Black, Latine, immigrant, and indigenous communities. “Each year CASA’s members vote on the top priorities for our organization, and access to healthcare has consistently been identified as one of their most pressing needs. The COVID pandemic led to higher death and infection rates, as well as economic devastation, of low-income immigrant communities. That experience, the effects of which continue to reverberate today, highlighted the vulnerability of our communities. We join the Biden administration in moving towards dignified and quality health care for safer, more resilient communities across the country.” 

DACA recipients remain disproportionately uninsured, despite DACA’s transformative economic and social impact. The Biden administration’s regulation, issued on May 3, 2024, removes a regulatory restriction that previously excluded DACA recipients and finds both DACA recipients and certain other lawfully present individuals eligible to purchase  health insurance under the ACA. 

The federal government estimates that approximately 100,000 previously uninsured DACA recipients could gain health insurance because of the new regulation, which is set to go into effect on November 1. 

“This fight goes beyond legal arguments — it’s about protecting the health, safety, and dignity of our communities,” said Nicholas Espiritu, deputy legal director at the National Immigration Law Center. “For years, DACA recipients were unjustly excluded from accessing health care under the Affordable Care Act, despite the fact that their tax dollars help make the Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplaces possible. By seeking to intervene in this lawsuit, we are preserving DACA recipients’ access to this hard-fought win. We cannot let this politically motivated challenge delay or deny access to care.” 

“DACA recipients are contributors to their communities. They pay taxes, serve in the military, build families, attend school, and thrive in workplaces,” said Matt Rozen, partner of Gibson Dunn.  “Gibson Dunn is proud to partner with NILC and continue our longstanding work on behalf of DACA recipients, this time in defending their basic right to purchase the same health insurance available to every other deferred action recipient on the Affordable Care Act exchanges.”

“On November 1, community groups like ours, will be ready to support newly eligible individuals with applying for the Affordable Care Act so that they can get the health care they actually help make possible,” said Sookyung Oh, executive director of Hamkae Center, an Asian American-serving organization based in Virginia. “Efforts by some to block implementation that would improve the quality of life of hundreds of thousands of our family members, friends, coworkers, and neighbors is going backwards. And we will do what we can to minimize that chilling effect.”

In addition to the motion to intervene, the DACA recipient and non-profit are opposing the states’ request that the court temporarily block the regulation. They also asked to move the case to a different federal district court in Washington, DC. 

Today’s filings with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Dakota, Western Division, are available at https://www.nilc.org/litigation/kansas-v-united-states/. 

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