During a press conference held at the Minnesota State Capitol on May 12, Bishop Kevin Kenney urged lawmakers to protect access to health care for all people, regardless of immigration status.
“Are we going to let them (undocumented immigrants) die in the streets?” he said. “Are we going to just let them suffer? Or are we going to allow them, all of us, the basic health care that we need?”
Bishop Kenney said that health care doesn’t have to be free but urged policymakers to find creative solutions to the issue of providing health care to undocumented immigrants. Refusing to provide access to health insurance and other services based on legal status, he said, is a “simplistic and blunt approach to a more complex problem.”
“Politicians have long taken advantage of our broken immigration system to induce many people to come here, and those who do can rarely get legal status or citizenship,” Bishop Kenney said. “As (the) late Pope Francis said, ‘Immigrants are sometimes treated like pawns on the chessboard of humanity.’”
Bishop Kenney said that the system needs to be fixed at the federal level. But he said he also believes steps need to be taken in the meantime to ensure the dignity and needs of immigrants.
In the Minnesota Catholic Conference (MCC)’s “Inside the Capitol” column, MCC staff wrote that the MCC has long advocated for allowing undocumented immigrants access to health insurance through MinnesotaCare, a health coverage program in the state for low-income individuals and families without employee health insurance.
“Access was granted in the 2023 legislative session, yet enrollment has outpaced initial expectations,” the MCC wrote in the column, titled “Why undocumented immigrants should have access to health care.”
“With a tight budget forecast, some legislators are proposing that access to this subsidized program for low-income Minnesotans be eliminated. MCC is opposed to the cuts, especially for children,” MCC staff wrote.
With the legislative session slated to end on May 19, budget talks have ramped up and Republican lawmakers have argued for the 2023 Immigrant Inclusion Act to be repealed.
“The program need not be free or cheaper than what a U.S. citizen pays, but they (undocumented immigrants) need access to health insurance because health care is an important component of stewarding the gift of life that God has given to each of us,” Bishop Kenney said.
