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Americans may be surprised to learn that scores ofillegal immigrants have been allowed to get a subsidy for Obamacare premiums allowing them to pay very little, or nothing at all, for world-class health care, courtesy of taxpayers.

But that may be changing.

Included in the current draft of the GOP health care bill in the U.S. Senate is a provision that would tighten the eligibility requirements and allow only legal, permanent residents of the U.S. (green-card holders) and those granted asylum to be eligible for the subsidy.

What theyre trying to do is encouraging, Robert Law of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) told LifeZette.

Under Obamacare, several categories of illegal immigrants have been able to apply to get health care coverage through one of the exchanges, and to have their premiums reduced, or totally covered, by the government. They are people who fall under the category of "lawfully present" immigrants a broad category that includes many who came to the U.S. illegally and whose deportation was deferred by the Obama administration, and who were given "parole" status. It also includes the tens of thousands of citizens of other countries who are living in the U.S. under "Temporary Protected Status."

There were 439,625 people living in the U.S. under the TPS program at the end of 2016, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. And the program is often not as temporary as its name would imply. Some foreigners have been living in the U.S. under this program for more than 15 years. The TPS program was recently extended for another six months for example, for 50,000 Haitians who came to the U.S. following the earthquake there more than seven years ago.

The 1996 welfare reform bill, which a Republican Congress passed, and President Bill Clinton signed into law, said that only "qualified" aliens would be eligible to receive federal, means-tested programs and that they could not receive such benefits in the first five years after coming to the U.S. But it was determined that Obamacare, officially the Affordable Care Act, was not a means-tested program.

The result is that many non-citizens, including those who came to the U.S. illegally, became immediately eligible for Obamacare, along withsubsidies to cover the entire cost of premiums, if their reported earnings were low enough.

But Obamacare is only one federal benefit that illegal immigrants have been able to get.

A 2015 study by the Center for Immigration Studies, based on government numbers, estimated that more than 50 percent of households in the U.S. with at least one illegal immigrant worker were Medicaid recipients, 23 percent get coupons for free food through the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program, and 21 percent are getting food stamps, usually through their U.S.-born children.

According to FAIR, the total amount the U.S. government spends on illegal immigrants per year is $113 billion.

The current draft of the Senate health care law that would replace Obamacare specifies that only people who are "qualified aliens" would be eligible for subsidies to cover their health care premiums through the federal health care program.

"It's laid out in statute and it's very narrow, so it's very encouraging," Law said of the language in the Senate bill.

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Senate Health Care Bill Clamps Down on Subsidies for Illegal Immigrants - LifeZette

Mayors are warning President Donald Trump that toughening immigration enforcement meddles with U.S. cities' affairs.

More than 250 mayors are meeting at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami Beach to take a stance on issues from climate change to the federal budget and health care. They are reviewing resolutions that would strongly oppose Trump's crack down on illegal immigration.

Mayors were struck a blow in January, when Trump ordered to cut funding to jurisdictions that deny in some way cooperation with federal immigration agents. Most cities have defied the order, and a federal judge blocked it in April, at least temporarily.

"Some of us are proud to be places of sanctuary, to protect immigrants, but this idea that we're in violation of something, I think is a big charade," said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Garcetti argued that all he wants from immigration officials is that they conduct enforcement in a "lawful, constitutional, court-ordered way," referring to policies where sanctuary cities demand warrants to turn over suspects to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"Police officers in Los Angeles do 20,000 to 30,000 requests for warrants from judges every year in the middle of the night when the judges are probably in their pajamas," Garcetti said. "The idea that ICE can't do the same thing seems ridiculous."

Mayors from big cities say they fear the increased enforcement will push immigrant communities into the shadows, deterring them to report crimes or cooperate as witnesses. The police chief of Los Angeles, Charlie Beck, said in March that sexual assaults and domestic violence reports by Latinos had dropped.

Miami-Dade County, which houses 34 municipalities including the conference host of Miami Beach, heeded Trump's January order and changed its policy so the corrections department honors all requests by ICE. Authorities have turned over 124 people to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since Jan. 27.

But GOP-identified mayors from states such as Indiana and Florida disagreed this weekend on targeting non-criminal immigrants solely for being in the country illegally.

Kent Guinn, mayor of Ocala, Florida, says that although he is against offering a pathway to citizenship to the 11.5 million immigrants who are in the country illegally, most immigrants he sees are "good."

"I don't think people realize there are some bad people that are here that need to leave," Guinn said. He referred to the 2015 shooting death of a San Francisco woman often highlighted by Trump when attacking sanctuary policies because the man charged with her death was in the country illegally and had been released by local law enforcement. "But the ones that we encounter on a day-to-day basis, they're very hard-working individuals that do the things that they need to do and participate in the economy. They work on horse farms, in restaurants. We see them. They're good people. We're not going around looking for them."

The Republican Mayor of Carmel, Indiana, Jim Brainard, who is also bucking his party on the climate front, says he opposes Trump's immigration views.

"Punishing cities makes no sense," Brainard said. "Everyone who has come to this country, regardless of whether it was illegal, ought to have a pathway to legalization and then we can move to issues that really can help make our country better."

Besides opposing the order on sanctuary cities, several mayors propose extending a deportation reprieve granted by former President Barack Obama to young immigrants who arrived illegally. Trump had vowed to end the program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, calling it "illegal executive amnesty" but has not yet decided whether he will revoke it.

ICE said it arrested more than 41,000 people on immigration charges in Trump's first 100 days in office, an increase of nearly 40 percent from the same period a year earlier. Nearly 11,000 had no criminal convictions, more than double the number of immigrants without criminal convictions that were arrested during a comparable period last year.

Adriana Gomez Licon is on Twitter http://twitter.com/agomezlicon

Marcos Martinez is on Twitter http://twitter.com/marcosmchacon

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Mayors to Trump: immigration orders meddle with cities - ABC News

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R., Va.) / AP

BY: Cameron Cawthorne June 23, 2017 2:00 pm

House Republicans arehopingto move forwarda pair of bills that tackle illegal immigration next week to carry out President Donald Trump's agenda of enforcing federal immigration laws.

One of the bills would boostpenalties for deported immigrants that try to re-enter the country and the other would targetso-called sanctuary cities,Politico reported.

The former bill is named "Kate's Law" after a young woman named Kate Steinle, who was shot and killed in San Francisco by an illegal immigrant who repeatedly was deported but returned. The latter bill, targeting cities and counties that do not cooperate with federal immigration officials, is called "No Sanctuaries for Criminals Act."

Under the"No Sanctuaries for Criminals Act," sanctuary cities that refuse to comply with immigration officialswould be penalized by barringHomeland Security and Justice Department grants, according toPolitico.

House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte (R., Va.) wrote the legislation, whichexpands "mandatory detention policies" to cover immigrants who have received drunk driving violations and for those immigrants whohave had their visa revoked.

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House Republicans Plan to Vote on Pair of Bills That Tackle Illegal Immigration - Washington Free Beacon

In May, New Yorks State Assembly approved a massive single-payer health care bill that would make the state the first in the nation to effectively eliminate private health insurance, but one key provision in the text could also dramatically increase the size of the states illegal immigration population.

The legislation, titled the New York Health Act, would provide zero-cost health care coverage to every person in New York. There would be no out-of-pocket fees, network restrictions or other requirements.

The estimated cost of the plan varies, but many conservative and libertarian analysts believe it will substantially increase the required tax burden. For instance, the Reason Foundation estimates the proposal will cost taxpayers in New York an additional $91 billion per year by 2019. Avik Roy, the president of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity and opinion editor at Forbes, says the proposal would require more than $200 billion in tax increases.

To put these figures in perspective, New York state collected $71 billion in tax revenue in 2016.

But perhaps even more damaging is the effect the program could have on illegal immigration in New York, which inevitably would impact the countless other social programs offered by the state. According to the single-payer bill, which remains under consideration by the states Senate, the only requirement for enrolling in the program would be to claim residency, and illegal immigrants wouldnt be turned down coverage.

As Matthew Glans a senior policy analyst at the Heartland Institute, where I also work as executive editor noted in a recent article on the proposal, The programs free coverage for undocumented immigrants would likely create an incentive for people to come to the state for the free care. This will create a burden on the system that funding may not be able to cover.

Its not unreasonable to believe millions of illegal immigrants could come pouring into New York if it approves this single-payer plan, especially since the New York City government, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, has repeatedly said it will not help federal officials enforce U.S. immigration law.

In May, following the arrest of 156 illegal immigrants, de Blasio said that its very distressing to hear that ICE is picking up people who are law abiding and contributing to the community.

According to a report by the Pew Research Center, an estimated 3.8 percent of New Yorks population in 2012 about 750,000 people was composed of immigrants illegally residing in the United States.

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This state's health care bill could make it the nation's go-to destination for illegal immigrants - TheBlaze.com

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President Trump called for the laws to be enforced that prevent immigrants from receiving welfare until five years after they arrive in the U.S.

Immigrants"must be able to support themselves financially," the president said at an Iowa rally Wednesday.

The average federal welfare benefits of immigrant-headed households, legal or illegal, is $6234, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.

Fifty-one percent of immigrant-headed households used at least one welfare program in 2012, as compared to 30 percent of native households, the Center reported.

The president was actually only reiterating an ill-enforced 1996 law.

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The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 declares immigrants not eligible for any Federal means-tested public benefit for a period of 5 years beginning on the date of the aliens entry.

"This is the humane way to go," Steve Forbes said on "The Cost of Freedom." He said that welfare reform in the 1990s worked, and the country should hearken back to that system.

Budget Director Mick Mulvaney echoed Trump's sentiments in May when he rejected the idea that government welfare is the only way to show compassion.

"We're no longer going to measure compassion by the number of programs or the number of people on those programs, but by the number of people we help get off of those programs," Mulvaney said.

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Trump Calls for Enforcement of Immigration Laws Restricting Welfare for Immigrants - Fox News Insider