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Immigration Bill Could Encourage Hiring of Amnestied Immigrants

Sens. won’t answer questions about policy

AP

Obamacare exemptions could create a financial incentive for employers to hire amnestied immigrants and five senators supporting the bill will not answer questions about that fact, the Weekly Standard reports.

[T]he Senate bill prohibits "registered provisional immigrants" (individuals who are now residing illegally in the United States granted legal status under the bill) from receiving Obamacare subsidies. But in so doing the Senate's immigration bill would create a big financial incentive for some employers to hire non-citizens granted legal status over American citizens.

As the Washington Examiner's Philip Klein recently reported: "Under Obamacare, businesses with over 50 workers that employ American citizens without offering them qualifying health insurance could be subject to fines of up to $3,000 per worker. But because newly legalized immigrants wouldn’t be eligible for subsidies on the Obamacare exchanges until after they become citizens – at least 13 years under the Senate bill – businesses could avoid such fines by hiring the new immigrants instead."

The Weekly Standard asked Sens. Max Baucus (D., Mont.), Bob Casey (D., Penn.), Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), Tom Carper (D., Del.), and Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.), who all voted to cut off debate on the bill Monday night, about the problem, and none would give a straight answer.