(WISCONSIN) – Voces de la Frontera, Wisconsin’s largest immigrant rights organization, applauds the Biden administration’s announcement on Thursday that the Department of Health and Human Services will propose a rule expanding eligibility that would allow Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients to enroll in health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace and Medicaid. Now, thousands of Wisconsin’s DACA recipients will have access to affordable health care.
Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera, said:
“For years DACA recipients and their families have been on the frontlines for the struggle for basic rights and protections. The decision to expand affordable healthcare to the nearly 600,000 DACA recipients in the U.S., and the nearly 7,000 DACA recipients that call Wisconsin home, is a victory thanks to relentless grassroots organizing.
Public healthcare for all is a basic human right, and this federal inclusion is a move in the right direction that acknowledges the important contributions DACA recipients make for their local communities.
It is important to note however that the DACA program continues to be under attack and that millions of other essential undocumented people without DACA continue to live without life-saving healthcare coverage. That is why on May 1 we will continue to march to send a message to Congress to pass a pathway to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented people and to call on President Biden to end the racist 287g program.”
