House speaker supports emergency medical care for immigrants

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Wednesday that Republicans don’t want to change a law requiring hospitals to provide care to any individual experiencing a medical emergency, including immigrants without legal status. 

His remarks capped off more than a week of comments from Republican politicians related to the idea of undocumented immigrants receiving medical care. Republicans claim that the Democrats’ government-funding bill would spend hundreds of billions of dollars providing “free health care for illegals.” It’s one of Republicans’ most consistent arguments in the government shutdown debate. 

“Democrats are threatening to shut down the entire government because they want to give hundreds of billions of dollars of health care benefits to illegal aliens,” Vice President JD Vance said on Sept. 28, before the shutdown started, on Fox News Sunday.