AOC Grilled About Whether Illegal Immigrants Should Have Taxpayer-Funded Healthcare

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., dodged questions about whether illegal immigrants should receive taxpayer-funded healthcare during a CNN town hall on Wednesday night.

The progressive lawmaker, seen by some as a possible 2028 presidential contender or future Senate challenger to Chuck Schumer, appeared with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to discuss the ongoing government shutdown.

A viewer named Jill Ireland, a California Democrat who works in insurance, asked in a pre-taped question: “Do you think taxpayers should be paying for the medical care of immigrants who are in the country illegally?”

Instead of giving a direct answer, Ocasio-Cortez called it a “common lie” pushed by Republicans who claim Democrats want to fund free healthcare for illegal immigrants.

“We already know that it’s federal law and federal statute that undocumented people cannot be covered by the [Affordable Care Act], they cannot be covered by Medicaid, they cannot be covered by Medicare. Period. That is the law of the land,” she said.

She then accused Vice President JD Vance of spreading “whole cloth storytelling” about emergency Medicaid programs supposedly covering illegal immigrants. “The truth of the matter is we have a federal law, as it should be, that any person who walks into a hospital in desperate need of medical attention receives that medical attention regardless of their insurance status,” she said.

“I don’t want to live in a world where if a human being is struck by a car or is getting rushed into a hospital, that the people in the ER surgical room are asking for your insurance information or asking for documents before they save your life,” she added.

Moderator Kaitlan Collins then pressed her: should providing taxpayer-funded healthcare to illegal immigrants be the law?

“I believe, personally, that healthcare is a human right,” Ocasio-Cortez replied. “I believe that every person should be able to go to the doctor. But I believe that right now, federal law is the federal law.”

When Collins asked again if she would change that law, Ocasio-Cortez again sidestepped. “I don’t — I believe in a single-payer healthcare system, where if you go in and you need a doctor, you can get the medical attention that you need,” she said, offering no direct answer.