Op-ed: Widespread ‘fact-checker’ failure on public health benefits for illegal immigrants

In trying to win the public relations battle over the shutdown, Republicans have argued that the Democrats’ budget would grant health benefits to illegal immigrants. “That’s false,” NPR says. “This is false,” according to the Associated Press. “False,” declares Snopes.

The fact-checkers are wrong. The Republican claim is not amenable to a true-or-false “fact check” because it rests on a defensible opinion of who counts as an illegal immigrant. Furthermore, experts at organizations that count illegal immigrants use essentially the same definition of illegal that Republicans are employing in this debate.

Immigration status may sound like a straightforward concept, but some noncitizens living in the United States without a valid visa nonetheless have been granted limited protections from deportation. They have “impermanent, precarious statuses,” in the words of the Pew Research Center. Examples include those with temporary protected status, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, parole, and open asylum claims.

While most illegal immigrants cannot directly access federal health benefits, in some cases, those with TPS or similar protection from deportation can do so. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act sunsets much of that access, but the Democrats’ proposed budget would restore it. Therefore, the claim that congressional Democrats want to give public health benefits to illegal immigrants is true, assuming that special statuses such as TPS and parole do not convert illegal immigrants into legal ones.

. . .

[Read the rest at the Washington Examiner.]