‘I Most Certainly Can!’: Press Sec. Leavitt to a Reporter Asking if She Can Explain Health Care for Illegals

LEAVITT: “Are you denying that Medicaid money has never gone to illegal aliens in the United States of America?”

reporter: “I’m not denying anything. I’m asking you if you can explain the disconnect in the messaging.”

LEAVITT: “I most certainly can. The Democrats’ proposal, their continuing resolution, let me just reiterate. The Republicans’ continuing resolution was a clean continuing resolution. There was no partisan politics injected into it. There were no conservative wish lists injected to it. What the Republicans want, and still want to this very second, is a clean continuing resolution to fund the United States government. What did the Democrats want in their continuing resolution? They inserted a provision to undo a provision in the working families tax cut, the One Big Beautiful Bill that ended taxpayer-funded health care illegal — benefits for illegal aliens. Democrats’ proposal would require Medicaid to pay more for emergency care provided to illegal aliens than Medicaid does for American patients who are disabled, elderly, or children. And this bill would have also allowed California to continue a gimmick that funds its Medicaid for illegals program. Those are things that we ended, the Trump Administration ended, with the passage and the signage of the One Big Beautiful Bill. And it is an undisputed fact, a fact that under the Biden Administration, illegal aliens were absolutely receiving taxpayer-funded health care benefits. In fact, in fiscal year 2024, Medicaid costs for emergency services for illegal immigrants skyrocketed by 142 percent from the previous year, to $9.1 billion. That’s 9.1 billion taxpayer dollars that were going to emergency services for illegals. Between President Trump’s last full fiscal year, under his first administration and Joe Biden’s last full fiscal year, Medicaid spending on emergency services for illegal immigrants nearly tripled. There was an increase of 196 percent between 2020 and 2024. And I have a chart here for you, and I’m more than happy to email it to you. I’d also like to add, because some were asking dishonest questions yesterday about emergency rooms. In southern California, according to health care professionals, in 2023, under the Biden Administration, southern California’s, quote, entire healthcare system was being bombarded with illegal immigrants and forcing American patients to endure longer wait times. In Denver, Colorado, the CEO of Denver Health stated that 8,000 illegal immigrants made 20,000 visits to the city’s health system in 2023, leaving an uncompensated bill totaling over $10 million. So, an illegal alien goes to the emergency room, who’s paying for it? The American taxpayer. The main safety net hospital in Denver had to turn away patients due to the massive influx of illegal immigrants into the community, and UC Health hospitals in 2024 reported their system was under stress from an increasing number of migrants. As a result, according to the head of emergency departments and urgent cares across the hospital system, quote, access is impeded for everyone. These are health care professionals who dealt with this directly. And there’s a lot more where that came from. It is an undisputed fact that Democrats want to give taxpayer-funded health care benefits to illegal immigrants, period.”