As if President Obama’s executive amnesty wasn’t already a slap in the face to out-of-work Americans, thanks to a loophole in Obamacare, it looks like businesses will actually have a financial incentive for hiring illegal immigrants.
The Washington Times reports:
Under the president’s new amnesty, businesses will have a $3,000-per-employee incentive to hire illegal immigrants over native-born workers because of a quirk of Obamacare.
President Obama’s temporary amnesty, which lasts three years, declares up to 5 million illegal immigrants to be lawfully in the country and eligible for work permits, but it still deems them ineligible for public benefits such as buying insurance on Obamacare’s health exchanges.
Under the Affordable Care Act, that means businesses who hire them won’t have to pay a penalty for not providing them health coverage — making them $3,000 more attractive than a similar native-born worker, whom the business by law would have to cover. [...]
A Department of Homeland Security official confirmed that the newly legalized immigrants won’t have access to Obamacare, which opens up the loophole for employers looking to avoid the penalty.
The Health and Human Services Department, which oversees Obamacare, referred questions to the White House, which didn’t reply to a request for comment.
“If it is true that the president’s actions give employers a $3,000 incentive to hire those who came here illegally, he has added insult to injury,” Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) told the Times. “The president’s actions would have just moved those who came here illegally to the front of the line, ahead of unemployed and underemployed Americans.”
Meanwhile, Obama maintains that bringing undocumented workers into the workforce is a good thing.
“Immigrants are good for the economy,” he said in Chicago on Tuesday. “We keep on hearing that they’re bad, but a report by my Council of Economic Advisers put out last week shows how the actions we’re taking will grow our economy for everybody.”
I’m sure those in the unemployment line would beg to differ.