During an interview with CBS News on Wednesday, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) responded to questions on benefits for illegal immigrants in the context of the government shutdown by saying, at first, that he doesn’t know what Republicans are talking about, then saying that there is a “small population of people that are legally in this country, that they determined are somehow illegal,” Republicans are “focusing on something that is not real, that doesn’t exist,” and also stating that he doesn’t care about the issue.
Host and CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Major Garrett asked, “They say the changes that Democrats want would reinstate Medicaid dollars for those in the country illegally. In the 2025 tax bill that the president signed, there were prohibitions against people granted refugee status, asylees, and those granted parole to be in this country, meaning the Biden administration allowed certain immigrants into this country. The Trump administration says that was waving a magic wand, and, essentially, Democrats want to provide taxpayer Medicaid dollars to illegal immigrants. Your response.”
Gallego answered, “I don’t know what the f*ck they’re talking about, to be honest. … What I really care about is the ACA. … If they are so worried about the small population of people that are legally in this country, that they determined are somehow illegal, even they’re still illegal, are receiving, potentially, some of these credits, then give us the wording. I’m willing to work with them to cut them out.”
Gallego added that Republicans are “focusing on something that is not real, that doesn’t exist, that none of us are actually demanding.”
Garrett followed up, “On the floor of the Senate, today, the Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), called this allegation from the White House — which was repeated at the White House briefing today by the Vice President, JD Vance — an absolute lie. If I heard you correctly, Sen. Gallego, you said there might be some who qualify in this categorization from the White House, so it’s not a full-blown lie from your perspective?”
Gallego responded, “Listen, I don’t care. This is like, these are games everyone’s playing. I want to protect 24 million Americans from their health insurance going up starting November 1. If this administration has some specific weirdo language that they have that they’re trying to exclude some population that they think is undeserving, then they should actually come up with the language and not just throw, like, specious accusations out there. Just get it done. Nobody cares enough about, like, these small little weirdo worlds that these guys live in.”
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