The Department of Health and Human Services is cutting undocumented immigrants' access to several health care programs.
The move could potentially affect tens of millions of people each year. Undocumented immigrants will no longer have access to Head Start or the Community Health Center program. Head Start provides education and health care assistance to children.
The change alters a three-decade interpretation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), issued during the Clinton administration.
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"The law includes provisions that would deny most forms of public assistance to most legal immigrants for five years or until they attain citizenship," HHS said in 1998. "President Clinton has said that legal immigrants who fall on hard times through no fault of their own and need help should get it, although their sponsors should take additional responsibility for them."
The law was meant to transition Americans off welfare programs into work.
"For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans’ tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration," said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "Today's action changes that—it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people."
Federal law still requires hospitals to treat any patient suffering a medical emergency, regardless of their immigration status.
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