While what normally happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas; President Obama's decision to dictate his Immigration Executive Order from sin city will likely have repurcussions across the entire nation. As NY Times reports, Obama is preparing to use his executive authority to provide work permits for up to five million people who are in the US illegally, and to shield them from deportation. But these new arrivals will not receive one key benefit: government subsidies for health care available under Obamacare. The immigrants would also be unlikely to receive benefits like food stamps, Medicaid coverage or other need-based federal programs offered to citizens and to some legal residents. "The costs of extending these programs to millions of low-wage illegal immigrants would be enormous," said Senator Jeff Sessions "this is yet another danger posed to Americans by the president’s unconstitutional action."
As AP reports,
A Democratic official says President Barack Obama will visit Las Vegas on Friday.
The trip comes amid anticipation that the president will announce executive orders on immigration as soon as this week. Obama used a stop in Las Vegas in 2013 to outline his blueprint for immigration legislation.
Legislation passed in the Senate, but gained no traction in the Republican-led House. Obama announced this summer that he would instead move forward with executive action on immigration, but delayed the measures until after the midterm election.
People familiar with the president's proposals say the policy could shield from deportation as many as 5 million people in the country illegally, and grant them work permits.
The official insisted on anonymity because this person wasn't authorized to confirm the president's trip by name.
But, as The NY Times reports, it appears the immigrants won't get the entire largesse of American dependency...
Millions of undocumented immigrants who are set to be granted a form of legal status by President Obama as early as this week will not receive one key benefit: government subsidies for health care available under the Affordable Care Act.
Mr. Obama is preparing to use his executive authority to provide work permits for up to five million people who are in the United States illegally, and to shield them from deportation. But an official familiar with the administration’s deliberations said on Tuesday that such people would not be eligible for subsidized, low-cost plans from the government’s health insurance marketplace, HealthCare.gov.
...
The decision would reflect the political sensitivities that arise when there is a collision between two of the most divisive issues in Washington: health care and immigration. It would also underline the White House preference for not risking the fury of conservative lawmakers who have long opposed providing government health care to illegal immigrants, and who fought intensely to deny such immigrants coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
...
But a White House decision to deny health care benefits to the immigrants would also fall far short of the kind of full membership in American society that activists have spent decades fighting for. The immigrants would also be unlikely to receive benefits like food stamps, Medicaid coverage or other need-based federal programs offered to citizens and to some legal residents.
However, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of health and human services, said that
federal aid — including health care benefits — could be available to children who are United States citizens but living with parents who are illegal immigrants. Such so-called mixed families “should not be scared,” she said, because they may be eligible for coverage and financial assistance.
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We leave it to Senator Jeff Session of Alabama - the senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee to conclude:
"The costs of extending these programs to millions of low-wage illegal immigrants would be enormous... This is yet another danger posed to Americans by the president’s unconstitutional action."
“It is plain that President Obama has no authority to grant lawful status to those declared unlawful by the duly passed laws of the United States,” he said. “Nor does the president have any authority to declare such individuals eligible to receive health benefits that have been restricted to lawful residents.”
