This statement can be attributed to Wendy Cervantes, director of immigration and immigrant families at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)

Washington, DC, March 11, 2025–The Trump Administration’s announcement to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to restrict access to health coverage for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients is disappointing but not surprising. In its search for new ways to threaten the well-being of immigrant communities, this administration has gone out of its way to restrict and worsen our health care system for everyone. 

Since the inception of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), over 800,000 DACA recipients have been barred from health coverage. Thanks to a Biden Administration rule, on November 1, 2024, individuals with DACA were finally able to purchase health coverage through the ACA Marketplace.

A 2023 survey found that DACA recipients were up to three times more likely to be uninsured. That lack of health coverage impacts them and the children in DACA households. Over 300,000 children in the United States have a parent with DACA status. 

DACA recipients, on average, have lived here for over 20 years and collectively pay billions in taxes each year to support programs and services for which they largely remain ineligible. The annual cost of providing coverage to DACA recipients is a small fraction of the trillions of dollars members of Congress are attempting to add to our national debt to give tax cuts to the richest Americans through the budget reconciliation process. This isn’t about costs or lack of resources, it’s about cruelty. 

Until a rule is finalized, DACA recipients’ current enrollment in health coverage remains the same. 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.