Undocumented immigrants are barred by federal law from SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare, CHIP and the ACA marketplace — they cannot even buy unsubsidized insurance on the exchange.

This one is not a matter of interpretation. Federal law excludes undocumented immigrants from SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare, CHIP, TANF and SSI. They cannot buy health coverage on the ACA marketplace — not subsidized coverage, and not full-price coverage either. SNAP has never been available to them, not once in the program's history.

The single exception is Emergency Medicaid, which does not go to the patient. It partially reimburses hospitals for the emergency care that federal law already requires them to provide to anyone who walks through the door, regardless of status or ability to pay.

Even people here legally are restricted. Lawful permanent residents face a five-year bar on most federal means-tested benefits. The 2025 budget law narrowed eligibility further for lawfully present immigrants — refugees, asylees, humanitarian parolees and some trafficking survivors began losing coverage they previously qualified for.

So the ledger reads: tens of billions paid in, a legal prohibition on taking out. Both documented and undocumented immigrants put more into public benefit programs than they are permitted to draw from them.