Faith Groups Urge the Administration to Include DREAMers in Affordable Care Act Protection

FCNL Signs Onto Interfaith Letter to Secretary Sebelius

In June, the Obama Administration announced a new policy allowing undocumented immigrant youth who meet certain criteria to apply for a renewable "deferred action status," meaning the Department of Homeland Security will not deport them for two years. At the end of August, however, the Administration released a policy excluding immigrant youth eligible for the deferred action from receiving health care benefits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise known as "Obamacare."

In response, FCNL and other faith groups sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urging her to reconsider the administration's ACA exclusion. FCNL and the faith groups believe that immigrant youth deserve to be included in U.S. society - in the spirit of the deferred action policy. Excluding them from ACA benefits undercuts the purpose of deferred action and the larger goals of comprehensive immigration reform: creating a system that treats immigrants justly and humanely.

Read the interfaith letter to Secretary Sebelius here.