A resurfaced report claims that President Joe Biden’s Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has helped process millions of dollars worth of reimbursement claims to medical providers treating illegal immigrants in federal custody while roughly 400,000 veterans and their families await medical treatment.
According to The New York Post, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has contracted with the VA’s Financial Services Center in Austin, Texas, since 2002 to process the reimbursement claims by medical providers who treat illegal immigrants detained in the U.S.
A July 2023 Department of Homeland Security report on “Healthcare Costs for Noncitizens in Detention” showed that the VA’s Financial Services Center processed 161,538 reimbursement claims in Fiscal year 2022. The report showed that ICE Health Services Corps paid roughly $94.3 million in taxpayer funding for the treatment of illegal immigrants.
While the VA has reportedly helped process millions of dollars in payments for illegal immigrant medical treatment, the VA’s website showed that 417,855 benefit claims by veterans and their families were still awaiting adjudication earlier this year.
Following criticism of the VA’s Financial Services Center’s role in processing reimbursement claims for illegal immigrants, Terrence Hayes, a VA spokesman, told The New York Post, “VA does not provide or fund any health care to ICE detainees.”
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“This involves no more than 10 employees and is fully funded by ICE. This has no impact [on] veteran care or services,” Hayes added. “At no time are any VA health care professionals or VA funds used for this purpose.”
The Wall Street Apes social media account shared the resurfaced report Friday in a post on X, formerly Twitter, saying, “Under The Biden Administration the VA is paying for healthcare for illegal migrants as over 400,000 American Veterans and their families are forced to wait.”
Friday’s social media post included a video describing how a whistleblower who worked as a border agent had come forward with information regarding the VA’s alleged role in the medical treatment of illegal immigrants.
“I still don’t have all of the facts, but it appeared VA is not directly providing to the immigrants,” a lawmaker can be heard saying in the video. “It seems VA is a middleman between the Department of Homeland Security and the hospitals, but the Biden administration has to answer to taxpayers and Congress.”
“And as of yet, the VA has not answered us, so we’re still continuing to aggressively go at this,” the lawmaker added. “VA resources should always be directed to the veterans, period. And I believe that we must improve VA care in the community to ensure veterans health care that they need, they’re receiving it, and it’s not being siphoned off to this border problem.”
