Attacking Vice President Kamala Harris on immigration, Republicans and allies of former Donald President Trump are saying the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate supported using taxpayer dollars to give immigrants who are in the country illegally free health coverage.
Senate and House candidates, an American political action committee supporting Trump, and the Republican National Committee have made similar assertions in recent days.
We contacted the Trump and Harris campaigns for comment about Trump’s statement but neither responded.
But the claims are misleading. It’s true that Harris supported allowing immigrants residing in the U.S. to obtain public health insurance regardless of legal status. During the first 2019 Democratic presidential primary debate in Miami, Kamala Harris raised her hand when a moderator asked candidates to raise their hands if their government health plan would cover immigrants who are in the country illegally.
But that doesn’t mean Harris specifically said she supported taxpayer funding for the benefits or that the health coverage would be free.
PolitiFact has checked similar claims Republicans and Trump made in 2019, and found them Mostly False. The moderator didn’t ask Harris and the other candidates directly whether their plans would provide the coverage for free or with taxpayer money, so the claim is unsubstantiated.
Recently, Republicans have pointed to statements Harris made in 2019 while running for president to portray her as supporting giving public benefits to immigrants in the country illegally. Specifically, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Harris whether her Medicare for All plan would cover immigrants who are in the country illegally.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee on July 23 posted on X a clip of the interview with the message: "FLASHBACK: Kamala Harris tells Jake Tapper she endorses universal healthcare and Medicare-for-all for illegal immigrants."
But that clip doesn’t show her saying that. Instead, in response to a question about whether Medicare for All should apply to people in the country illegally, she said, "I am opposed to any policy that would deny in our country any human being from access to public safety, public education, or public health, period." Tapper didn’t ask anything else about this.
Medicare for All is a system, promoted by some Democrats, in which all Americans would get their health insurance from the government program modeled after the one that currently covers people 65 and older and people with disabilities.
Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which became law in 1986, all patients regardless of citizenship or immigration status are already entitled to treatment in hospital emergency rooms.
Some anti-immigration groups say they still believe Harris supports taxpayer-paid health benefits for immigrants who are in the country illegally.