(DailyAnswer.org) – Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has highlighted the success rate of his push to limit the appeal of Florida to illegal immigrants, as newly released data reveals that the amount of the state’s Medicaid spent on illegal immigrants has declined considerably. In the 2022-2023 fiscal year, $159 million of federal and state funds was spent on Medicaid for migrants.
DeSantis signed a law in 2023 that requires hospitals to clarify patients’ immigration status. In the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which has two months remaining, there has been a reduction of more than 50% in the amount spent on the state’s Emergency Medical Assistance program.
Patients are not legally forced to answer the questions about their immigration status, but activists argued that it could have an effect on illegal immigrants. Illegal aliens under federal law are not entitled to Medicaid, but states are required to treat them in an emergency. The bill signed by DeSantis was intended to dissuade migrants and make the state less attractive to them.
Other measures introduced by DeSantis include a ban on local governments providing illegal immigrants with IDs and efforts to suspend employers’ licences if they hire illegal aliens. Like the Republican border state of Texas, which has long been burdened with unprecedented numbers of illegal border crossings, Florida has invested in a program to bus migrants up to Democratic-run sanctuary cities.
Not all of DeSantis’ anti-immigration efforts have been successful, however; in May the federal US District Judge Roy Altman blocked key features of the governor’s anti-immigration law. The most controversial measure, which was passed by Republican lawmakers in 2023, made transporting illegal immigrants into Florida a felony. Altman, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, blocked the measure temporarily and argued along with its critics that it should be pre-empted by federal laws on immigration.
The DeSantis administration has claimed that a decrease in the amount spent on Medicaid and in the amount of migrants using it were signs that the new measures were successful, due to them being designed to dissuade illegal migrants from settling in the state.
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