A little over a year ago, Vice President JD Vance was “fact checked” during his debate with Tim Walz for describing Haitian nationals in Ohio as illegal immigrants. The CBS moderators pointed out that those immigrants were brought in under something called Temporary Protected Status. Vance rightly questioned the legitimacy of this status, showing it had been granted in an arbitrary way. Some may recall that the CBS moderators cut his microphone to protect viewers from having to hear Vance’s point.

A similar debate is playing out now with the government shutdown. Republicans have been accused of spreading “misinformation” for claiming that Democrats want healthcare for illegal aliens. The point of contention has to do with the legal status of over 1 million “lawfully present” non-citizens, including people who have received Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and other legally ambiguous categories. President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act introduced new eligibility restrictions for Obamacare, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits for many so-called “lawfully present” immigrants, and Democrats want to bring those benefits back.

Democrats are free to point out that “lawfully present” immigrants are not technically illegal, but who counts as legitimately residing in the U.S. depends on how the laws are enforced by the executive branch and, ultimately, it is a question for the people to decide through elections. It is reasonable for many to question the legitimacy of a program like TPS, for instance, which has provided a form of de facto amnesty to many since the 1990s. Under Biden, the number of people and countries qualifying for TPS expanded to an unprecedented degree. In one of his final acts as president, Joe Biden renewed “temporary” protection for over 1 million immigrants. But under Trump, TPS holders are being exposed to deportation, a fate some have avoided for decades under their “temporary” status.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a self-avowed illegal immigrant who has been credibly accused of membership in the criminal gang MS-13, is one of the people who could lose eligibility for Obamacare subsidies. He is able to get said subsidies because of his “withholding of removal” status imposed in 2019 by an immigration judge. This is what Democrats are defending when they disingenuously claim they do not want illegal immigrants receiving free healthcare.

We may concede that Republicans are glossing over the larger issue at the center of the shutdown battle, which concerns non-citizens as well as millions of Americans who qualify for Obamacare subsidies that make the broken system usable—at least until the money runs out. Republicans, it is true, do not have a clear and unified response to healthcare, so they are focusing on a related—but legitimate—issue that has broad support from the voting public.

Immigration affects everything, especially when we consider the overwhelming numbers America has had to absorb in recent decades. Under federal law, hospitals must treat anyone who shows up who is in a medical emergency, but this does not mean that the government should reward states that implement policies with respect to illegal immigrants that contribute to crowding and misuse of the emergency care system.

Republicans under Trump have tried to target this problem by reducing the federal reimbursement rate for Emergency Medicaid—which covers hospital treatment for illegal immigrants. Instead of covering this at the Affordable Care Act’s 90 percent rate, they propose to lower it to the standard matching rate. The effect of this would be to penalize blue states with large illegal populations and incentivize their cooperation with federal immigration law. This is an entirely logical approach to policy, and anything but heartless. Most spending for Emergency Medicaid, goes toward labor and delivery services. This means Americans are effectively funding illegal aliens who choose to have “anchor babies.” This increases the size of a poor, dependent, and culturally alien population who have no right to be here but who Democrats expect Americans to support as future Democratic voters.

Americans have grown so inured to misplaced government largesse that immigrant advocates play up the point that Emergency Medicaid accounts for only a fraction of Medicaid’s nearly $1 trillion budget. Emergency Medicaid goes disproportionately to California, the state with the highest foreign-born population, and a state that is in open rebellion against federal immigration law.

Democrats cannot plausibly deny their party’s support for favorable treatment for illegal aliens, typified by their support of free healthcare for this group. Even the most politically disengaged know that Democrats support illegal immigrants and oppose the government’s earnest efforts to deport them. More than a dozen blue states provide health benefits to illegal immigrants. The immense financial burden of this largesse has even led some ambitious Democratic governors, like Gavin Newsom of California and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, to backtrack a bit on the scope of the free healthcare. Nevertheless,  they continue to provide these benefits, costing taxpayers billions of dollars.

The White House estimates $200 billion in savings from its new restrictions on free and subsidized healthcare for immigrants. While Democrats unambiguously support subsidizing illegal immigrants and Republicans wish to rein in this practice, the shutdown fight raises a much more important point about our national sovereignty. Americans have the right to decide who belongs to their political community, and whether it makes sense to provide subsidies to foreigners, even those who are here “legally.”