Posts Tagged: immigrants

No way in: Millions of people excluded from ACA

Photo of Dominga Sarabia by Lily Dayton, design by Cathy Krizik (HealthyCal.org)

by LILY DAYTON posted 01.21.2015

California Health Report: An estimated 
2.6 million undocumented California residents are explicitly barred by law from the benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The legislation has been a huge boon for many Californians: More than 3 million previously uninsured Californians gained health insurance since the start of the ACA’s first enrollment period. Almost 30 percent of the remaining uninsured, however, are undocumented immigrants who are ineligible for both Medi-Cal and assistance through Covered California.

Providing up to 1.4 million driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants will cost $65 million for the Department of Motor Vehicles during the first six months after the law takes effect January 1, 2015, according to Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget plan. DMV plans five new temporary offices to handle the load.

The state Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that California’s undocumented immigrants are eligible to practice law if they meet licensing requirements — even though they are not citizens. The court’s decision involved Sergio C. Garcia, an undocumented immigrant from Chico who passed all qualifying state exams and was seeking a license to practice law in California. Arguments in the case were heard last year.

Millennials eye shot at center stage

State Capitol, Sacramento. Photo: Wikimedia

by NIK BONOVICH posted 11.25.2013

The new poltical landscape reflects such things as redistricting, the top-two primary and the majority-vote budget. Partisanship even seems to be waning –gasp! — in Sacramento, as some Republicans crossed party lines to support driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants and liberals behaved pragmatically in order to pass a fracking bill. Does a new day loom in the Capitol? The Millennials hope so. (Photo: Eddie Villanueva)

A freshman Republican in the California State Senate is pushing against the grain to change his party’s congressional position on immigration reform.