Immigrant rights activists protest plan to end low-cost health insurance for undocumented adults
Demonstrators gather for a protest organized by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee calling for the continuation of MinnesotaCare for undocumented adults outside of the Governor's Reception Room at the Minnesota State Capitol Tuesday, May 27, 2025. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
Minnesota immigrants voiced outrage Tuesday about a planned rollback of a law that allowed undocumented adults to access low-cost health insurance.
Dozens of immigrant rights activists chanted in English and Spanish outside the governor's reception room in the Capitol Tuesday afternoon, slamming Gov. Tim Walz and his fellow Democrats for making a deal with Republicans to end undocumented adults' eligibility in MinnesotaCare, the state-subsidized health insurance program for the working poor.
The Democratic-Farmer-Labor-controlled 2023 Legislature opened up MinnesotaCare to undocumented Minnesotans. Undocumented people could start enrolling in MinnesotaCare on Jan. 1; roughly 20,000 are now on the rolls. If the deal goes through as expected, however, their coverage would expire at the end of the year.
Walz and DFL legislative leaders Rep. Melissa Hortman and Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy need Republican support to craft a two-year state budget because Republicans share control of the House, 67-67.
If lawmakers don't pass a budget by the end of June, state government will shut down. Budget bills — many of them still outstanding — will require Republican support to pass the House, and Republicans have made kicking undocumented immigrants off of MinnesotaCare a top priority in negotiations.
Walz and DFL leaders joined Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth at a press conference on May 15 announcing a budget deal that included removing undocumented adults, but not children, from MinnesotaCare.
'Why should immigrants continue to vote for the Democratic party?' immigrant rights activist and Minneapolis City Council candidate Emilio Rodríguez said to the crowd on Tuesday. He also criticized 'pro-life' Republican politicians who support the revocation of health care for immigrants.
'DFL, shame on you. Immigrants are people too,' protesters chanted. They also repeated a slogan long used in Latin America to protest tyrannical governments: 'El pueblo unido jamás será vencido,' which means 'the people united will never be defeated.'
Walz wasn't in the reception room during the protest; he was receiving a briefing from the National Guard at the time, a spokesperson said.
José Méndez, a Mexico-born mechanic and immigrant rights activist, said he's thankful to have health insurance through his job, but he has several friends who were only able to access health insurance when MinnesotaCare expanded eligibility in January.
For Méndez, the rollback of health insurance for undocumented adults is just one of the many abuses immigrants have suffered in the United States: low pay, racism, discrimination by law enforcement officers. Republicans who control the federal government are ramping up deportations and revoking other benefits from immigrants. Méndez is also opposed to a proposed tax on remittances — money that immigrants send to their family in their home country — included in the U.S. House Republican tax bill.
'Now they want to take away our health care,' Méndez said in Spanish. 'Instead of helping us, they want to screw us over even more.'
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