Missouri Lawmakers’ Claims About Government Shutdown: A Fact Check

In the midst of a federal government shutdown affecting SNAP benefits, Missouri’s Republican legislators are blaming Democrats for the impasse, claiming their focus on healthcare for undocumented immigrants is the primary obstacle.

Senator Eric Schmitt’s office released a statement Tuesday asserting, “Senator Schmitt has voted 11 times to keep the government open and allow Missouri families to continue receiving SNAP benefits. Sadly, Democrats have voted 11 times to shut the government down. They have taken government funding, including SNAP benefits, hostage in order to push for their radical policies including healthcare for illegal immigrants.”

When pressed by local media for specific details about these alleged healthcare policies, Schmitt’s office did not respond. The rhetoric echoes statements from other Missouri Republicans, including Governor Mike Kehoe, who claimed “Senate Democrats are holding the federal government hostage,” and Representative Mark Alford, who referred to the situation as the “Schumer Shutdown.”

This narrative aligns with House Speaker Mike Johnson’s claim that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer “wants to reinstate free healthcare for illegal immigrants paid by American taxpayers.” However, multiple fact-checking organizations, including The Associated Press, The New York Times, NPR, and Politifact, have labeled these assertions false or misleading.

The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act explicitly prohibits unauthorized noncitizens from accessing most federal benefits, including healthcare. According to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy organization, “undocumented immigrants are not eligible to enroll in federally funded coverage including Medicaid, CHIP, or Medicare, or to purchase coverage through the ACA Marketplaces.”

Census data from 2021 indicates approximately 11 million unauthorized noncitizens living among the 45.3 million foreign-born residents in the United States. The Library of Congress uses the terms “unauthorized noncitizens,” “illegal aliens,” and “undocumented immigrants” interchangeably in its documentation of benefit eligibility.

The Center for Immigration Studies, a nonpartisan think tank, points to evolving definitions of immigration status under different administrations. Under President Biden, the number of immigrants with temporary protected status increased from 400,000 to 1.2 million, while an additional 2.9 million received “parolee” designation. While these individuals have received temporary protection from deportation, they technically remain categorized as “illegal immigrants” since their status could change.

Jason Richwine, a scholar at the Center for Immigration Studies, argues that “the claim that congressional Democrats want to give public health benefits to illegal immigrants is indeed true — as long we acknowledge that special statuses such as TPS and parole do not convert illegal immigrants into legal ones.”

However, the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy clarifies that Democrats are primarily advocating for extending Marketplace premium tax credits that would benefit over 14 million people, most of whom are U.S. citizens, along with those having temporary protected status or parole.

Federal law does permit emergency medical care for undocumented immigrants. Emergency Medicaid spending for treating individuals who would qualify for Medicaid but for their immigration status amounted to $3.8 billion in fiscal year 2023, representing just 0.4% of overall Medicaid expenditures of $860 billion.

While states have the option to expand Medicaid coverage to lawfully present immigrant children and pregnant individuals, Missouri is among eleven states that have declined to implement such expansions.

As the shutdown continues, more than 667,000 Missourians face the prospect of losing SNAP benefits in November, with Governor Kehoe acknowledging that the state has “no avenue to covering these funds for the over 326,000 households who may be affected.”