Three immigrants with green cards sued the state today, saying it is discriminating against them by removing them from state-subsidized health care due to their immigration status. The lawsuit seeks to prevent the state Department of Human Services from instituting planned budget cuts that would remove the plaintiffs — and about 12,000 other non-citizens — from New Jersey FamilyCare, the...
Three immigrants with green cards sued the state today, saying it is discriminating against them by removing them from state-subsidized health care due to their immigration status.
The lawsuit seeks to prevent the state Department of Human Services from instituting planned budget cuts that would remove the plaintiffs — and about 12,000 other non-citizens — from New Jersey FamilyCare, the state’s insurance plan for low-income families.
Two of the plaintiffs are from Ecuador, the third from Jamaica. All are in the United States as legal permanent residents. But they have been legal permanent residents less than five years, meaning they will lose their FamilyCare benefits under eligibility restrictions announced earlier this year.
"These are immigrants being singled out on the basis of their alienage, for differential treatment," said attorney Jenny-Brooke Condon, who filed the suit in Superior Court in Trenton for the Center for Social Justice at Seton Hall University’s School of Law. "The state is saying, ‘We’re going to impose upon immigrants only this additional requirement that you hold a certain status for five years.’
"The law is pretty clear that those sorts of ... distinctions between similarly situated, needy individuals who all need health care and cannot afford it without assistance violates the constitution."
Nicole Brossoie, spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services, which oversees FamilyCare, said the department does not comment on pending litigation.
Two of the plaintiffs are married. Manual and Maria Guaman, who live in Teaneck with their three children, who are U.S. citizens, came to the United States in 1992 and 2000, respectively, and became legal permanent residents in 2006.
Their family cannot afford health care without subsidies; Manual Guaman, a cook, is the sole provider, the lawsuit says.
Children and pregnant women are exempted from the cuts, which are expected to kick in today in many cases.
Sen. Joe Vitale (D-Middlesex), who opposed the FamilyCare cuts, said he supports the suit.
"These men and women work hard, play by the rules, and are on the path to citizenship that we have established and that they honor," said Vitale, a longtime proponent of FamilyCare. "To kick the overwhelming majority of them to the curb and deny proper health care upon which they have come to depend, is morally wrong and fiscally imprudent."
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