The Department of Health and Human Services, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced a ban on illegal immigrants accessing the agency’s taxpayer-funded benefits.
Since 1998, the Department of Health and Human Services has interpreted the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 to allow illegal immigrants access to certain federal public benefits, according to the agency.
HHS announced this week that it has officially rescinded this interpretation, established during the Clinton administration.
“For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans’ tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration,” HHS Secretary Kennedy said in a statement on Thursday. “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.”
Per Just the News: “The federal public benefits that illegal immigrants will no longer have access to include Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics; Community Mental Health Services Block Grant; Community Services Block Grant (CSBG); Head Start; Health Center Program; Health Workforce Programs not otherwise previously covered (including grants, loans, scholarships, payments, and loan repayments); Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Treatment, Prevention, and Recovery Support Services Programs administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness Grant Program; Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grant; Title IV-E Educational and Training Voucher Program; Title IV-E Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program; Title IV-E Prevention Services Program; and Title X Family Planning Program.”
Last month, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) also said that the Democratic Party mishandled the key issue of border security during Biden’s tenure by allowing millions of migrants into the country over the past four years, handing Republicans a powerful campaign issue.
Fetterman criticized his party’s approach to immigration and border enforcement during a debate with Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania, held at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate and aired on Fox Nation.
“That’s a mistake that our party made, and that’s the border,” Fetterman told “Fox News Sunday” anchor Shannon Bream, who moderated the debate that was co-hosted by the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation.
Fetterman voiced support for the approximately $150 billion included in President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” aimed at securing the U.S.-Mexico border and strengthening immigration enforcement across the country, WAVY-TV reported.
“I absolutely support those kinds of investments to make our border secure,” he said, acknowledging, “I’ve lost some support in my party” for taking that position.
“I thought the border was really important, and our party did not handle the border appropriately. Look at the numbers — 260,000, 300,000 people showing up our borders,” he said, a reference to the daily average of migrants illegally crossing into the U.S. during the Biden regime.
“That’s roughly the size of Pittsburgh. Now, that’s unacceptable, and that’s a national security issue, and that’s chaos,” he added, noting further that the population of the Pennsylvania city was around 303,000 in 2023.
The Congressional Budget Office reported last year that annual net migration during the Biden administration averaged 2.4 million people from 2021 to 2023.“We can’t pretend we can take care of 300,000 people showing up every month,” Fetterman said, per WAVY.
McCormack followed up Fetterman’s comments by noting that the number of migrants entering the U.S. illegally throughout Biden’s administration was roughly equivalent to Pennsylvania’s entire population.
“If you look at the numbers … over the last four years of the Biden administration, we added Pennsylvania, which has 13 million people. We added that in terms of illegal immigrants coming into our country,” he said.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, ran on implementing a mass deportation policy, which has been frequently thwarted by left-wing groups and Democratic attorneys general suing to block his efforts.
With that in mind, for the first time in nearly two decades of asking, a leading polling firm announced in June that a majority of voters believe the country is moving in the “right direction” under Trump’s policies.