Asylum seeker

A new report from Washington's state hospital and community health associations projects hospitals will lose nearly $6 billion in revenue through 2033 due to federal Medicaid cuts enacted under last year's Republican-backed tax and spending law. Sen. Maria Cantwell and healthcare leaders warned the roughly $900 billion in nationwide cuts will raise ER wait times, premiums and uncompensated care costs. About 200,000 Washingtonians are expected to lose coverage by next year, partly due to new work requirements starting January 1 and the removal of coverage for refugees and asylees. Rural hospitals, including on the Olympic Peninsula, face the steepest losses, with clinics also bracing for major reimbursement shortfalls and reduced patient visits.

South Dakota's Constitutional Amendment I, on the November ballot, would repeal the state's Medicaid expansion if federal funding drops below the current 90-percent matching threshold. Voters approved Medicaid expansion in 2022 with 56 percent support, and lawmakers placed Amendment I before voters during this year's legislative session.

Supporters, including Republican State Senator Casey Crabtree, argue the state cannot absorb costs if Washington reduces its share, though he notes expansion could continue under state statute if lawmakers find funding. Opponents, including medical professionals and advocacy groups like the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, warn as many as 30,000 South Dakotans could lose coverage, calling the program critical in rural areas. Both sides acknowledge that any federal rollback of Medicaid's funding formula would face a difficult path through Congress, given that 40 states now rely on expansion dollars. Separately, other states are already seeing coverage losses tied to federal policy changes: Washington state expects about 14,000 residents, mostly lawfully present immigrants without green cards, to lose Medicaid eligibility starting October 1 under the new federal law known as HR1. The South Dakota vote will test public appetite for conditional entitlement guarantees tied to federal funding levels.

Nearly 1,000 refugees in Iowa are expected to lose federally funded Medicaid coverage this week as provisions of last year's federal tax and budget law take effect. The Refugee Alliance of Central Iowa estimates at least 973 refugees in the state lack green cards and will fall out of eligibility under the Oct. 1 cutoff, though children legally residing in the U.S. will remain covered under a state-continued federal option.

The change rolls back a 1996 policy that allowed refugees, asylees, and other humanitarian immigrants to qualify for Medicaid. Republicans say the restrictions protect program funding and taxpayer dollars. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the federal government will save roughly $131 billion through 2034 from immigrant health-coverage restrictions overall, including about $6.2 billion from this specific change, though those figures don't capture potential added costs for hospitals, states, and counties. A coalition led by the Iowa Catholic Conference is pressing Gov. Kim Reynolds to adopt an option, used by 32 states, to preserve coverage for certain pregnant immigrants. Iowa also begins new Medicaid work requirements Dec. 1.

Misael Ramos, a Democratic Socialists of America member running for Austin city council, was arrested on a misdemeanor "riot participation" charge stemming from a September 20 protest over the ICE shooting of Venezuelan asylum seeker Wilber Rafael Garces Perez. Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and special agents took Ramos, 40, into custody around 8:45 a.m. Saturday on an outstanding warrant, saying he was captured on camera taking construction barricades, sandbags and other items and attempting to obstruct traffic. He was booked into Travis County Sheriff's Office custody around 9:30 a.m. Ramos denies wrongdoing and plans to contest the charge; his attorney, Edmund "Skip" Davis, said Ramos was chanting and protesting, not rioting. Released later Saturday, Ramos addressed cheering supporters outside the jail, criticizing federal immigration raids.

Garces Perez was shot by an ICE officer during a DoorDash delivery after his car was sideswiped twice by an unmarked federal vehicle; he was later released into ICE custody with a bullet still in his back. ICE and DHS have said only that he was subject to "a targeted vehicle stop." The shooting has drawn criticism from Democrats and sparked ongoing protests in Austin, including a rally at the Texas Capitol.
Austin council candidate Misael Ramos was arrested on a riot charge tied to protests over an ICE shooting of a Venezuelan man.

Armelle Bondonga, a Louisville resident who came to the U.S. as an asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was taken into ICE custody on Aug. 12 after appearing for a scheduled marriage-based immigration interview. Her attorney, Arianit Osmani, says she has no criminal history and voluntarily attended the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services interview with her husband, a U.S. citizen, rather than evading authorities. The couple has a U.S.-citizen child.

Her husband's Form I-130 petition remains pending, and her father's related asylum case is before the Board of Immigration Appeals. Osmani says Bondonga now has a potential path to permanent residency through marriage, but an existing removal order complicates that process. Bondonga previously attended Waggener High School and was active with Future Ancestors, a student group formed after Breonna Taylor's death. Students at Louisville's J. Graham Brown School staged a protest opposing ICE policies, and local officials, including Councilwoman Shameka Parrish-Wright, have voiced support. State Rep. Nima Kulkarni has connected Bondonga's family with additional legal counsel through her immigrant legal defense fund.