GOP pushes claim that Democrats shut down to give health care to ‘illegal immigrants'

With the government shut down, Republicans are centering their message on a simple argument: “Democrats are grinding America to a halt in order to give illegal immigrants free health care.”

That message, from a new ad from the National Republican Congressional Committee, has been echoed by GOP lawmakers and the Trump administration in recent days.

Vice President JD Vance claimed on Fox News that the GOP’s “big beautiful bill” turned off health funding for “illegal aliens.”

“Democrats want to turn it back on,” he said. “It’s not something that we made up. It’s not a talking point. It is in the text of the bill that they initially gave to us to reopen the government.”

U.S. law already prohibits unauthorized immigrants from gaining any federally subsidized health care coverage — through M