White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is being criticized after claiming, without offering evidence, that hospitals across the U.S. are prioritizing undocumented immigrants over American citizens in emergency rooms.

Vice President JD Vance introduced the baseless claim this week that Americans are waiting in long lines because undocumented immigrants are being given free health care. The issue has stayed in the news for days, with the White House under pressure to come up with a reasonable response.

Leavitt on Thursday alleged, falsely, that the Biden administration had funneled millions of “illegal aliens” into a program called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and granted them access to “free” medical benefits. TPS beneficiaries are not entitled to Medicaid or other similar federal government benefits.

On Friday, during the White House press briefing, Leavitt was asked if it is the administration’s position that “hospitals should not have to treat people who come into the emergency department who were not here before?” referring to “undocumented or illegal aliens.”

READ MORE: ‘Crooks’: Top Dem Blasts Trump Admin’s Latest ‘Extortion Attempts’

Leavitt sidestepped the question, instead placing blame on President Joe Biden.

“Our position is that it’s completely unacceptable, that the Biden administration paroled and encouraged an invasion of tens of millions of illegal aliens into our country, and then promised them free health care,” she said, which is false.

“And the Democrats are on the record repeatedly stating that they believe illegal aliens should have health care benefits, free health care benefits, in the United States of America,” she said.

In 2019, several Democratic presidential candidates raised their hands when asked if they supported the idea of allowing undocumented immigrants to access health care benefits, but they did not state that they supported free health care.

“We’ve seen the unfortunate consequence of that,” Leavitt continued, “where American patients are being put last, where American patients are having to wait in wait rooms, where grandmothers and grandfathers are waiting hours and hours for care, because they’re being put behind the line to illegal aliens. And we don’t agree with that. We don’t support that.”

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Hospital emergency rooms triage patients based on urgency and severity of symptoms, not on immigration or citizenship status.

One study found that undocumented immigrants use hospital emergency rooms less than naturalized citizens, and far less than U.S. citizens.

“The Democrats need to reopen the United States government, and we hope that they will do the right thing on the Senate floor in just a few moments,” Leavitt added, referring to a Senate vote that subsequently failed.

Speaker Mike Johnson said on Friday he would not allow any Senate compromise bill to be voted on in the House.

One social media commenter joked, “Excuse me, Nurse. I’d like to transfer to the IllegalAlien Express Line.”

Reporter: Is it the administration’s position that hospitals should not have to treat people who come into the emergency department who are not here legally?

Leavitt: No, our position is that it’s completely unacceptable that the Biden administration encouraged an invasion of… pic.twitter.com/Q2RF1fUFZv

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 3, 2025

READ MORE: ‘Intolerable Abuse of Power’: Top Democrat Rages at Trump’s ‘MAGA Propaganda’ Scheme

Image via Reuters

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is coming under fire for remarks he made that would effectively guarantee a lengthy shutdown.

Johnson sent House members home earlier this week, leaving the Senate with a “continuing resolution” to fund the federal government. The House bill did not pass the Senate.

Now senators on both sides of the aisle are quietly attempting to craft new legislation to reopen the federal government.

But the Speaker is strongly suggesting his bill is the only one that he will allow to end the impasse.

READ MORE: ‘Crooks’: Top Dem Blasts Trump Admin’s Latest ‘Extortion Attempts’

On Friday, Scripps News congressional correspondent Nathaniel Reed asked the Speaker whether he would bring a Senate bipartisan deal to a vote in the House.

Johnson twice indicated that he would not.

“There’s some talks right now that could be going on in the Senate floor. Democrats, not so much of the leadership level, but kind of within the ranks of the Democratic Party, having conversations with their Republican colleagues about a path forward,” Reed told Johnson. “If they reach a bipartisan agreement, a negotiation is successful, and they vote on something over there, would you put it up for a vote over here?”

“Well, the House has done its job,” Johnson responded. “All they have to do is pass the clean, continuing resolution, and then we can talk about all this substance, but, I mean, I can’t project the future of what would happen — all the devil’s always in the details.”

Reed then pressed Johnson: “I just want to be clear here. Are you ruling out putting up a compromise on the floor for a vote if the Senate reaches one?”

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“I am right now,” the Speaker replied, “because we sent a clean, continuing resolution.”

Critics blasted the Speaker.

Justin Slaughter, a former federal government official commented, noting that “Dems are actually successfully starting to fracture GOP on health care; that’s the only reason Johnson needs to say this.”

He added, “I see minimal chance [government] reopens before the 15th.”

U.S. Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) noted, “Democrats want to work across the aisle to end the shutdown and protect Americans’ health care. Speaker Johnson is very clear that House Republicans have no interest in that.”

Michael Linden, a former Senate aide, wrote: “EVERY enacted appropriations bill for the last decade has been bipartisan. It has to be because it needs 60 in the Senate. By ‘ruling out’ a bipartisan compromise, Johnson is promising to extend the shut down.”

U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) added, “Translation: House Republicans are RULING OUT reopening the government. The American people can’t afford your inaction, Mr. Speaker.”

NEW: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R) tells me @scrippsnews that he is “right now” RULING OUT putting any future bipartisan Senate compromise to reopen the government on the House floor.

WATCH: pic.twitter.com/H7HgZxW4J0

— Nathaniel Reed (@ReedReports) October 3, 2025

READ MORE: Leavitt Explains White House Claim ‘Illegals’ Get Free Health Care—Experts Disagree

Image via Reuters

A powerful Democratic senator is blasting President Donald Trump and his Budget Office director Russell Vought for canceling or pausing tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure projects in states that voted for Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

“More blatant extortion attempts coming out of the White House this morning,” U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) declared on Friday. Murray is the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“Trump and Vought are targeting projects in blue states to punish their political opposition by hurting regular people. Everyone can see these crooks for what they are & none of us should be intimidated.”

On Wednesday, Office of Management and Budget Director Vought paused or canceled approximately $18 billion in two New York City infrastructure projects — one of which also directly impacts New Jersey residents. He claimed it was to “ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles.”

READ MORE: Trump’s Late-Night Rant Brands Dems ‘Party of Satan’ Weeks After Kirk Rhetoric Blame Game

Vought then went on to cancel nearly $8 billion in funding for what he labeled “Green New Scam” projects across sixteen states that did not vote for Trump in 2024: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA.

On Friday, as Murray mentioned, Vought paused billions in infrastructure projects for Chicago — a top Trump target.

“$2.1 billion in Chicago infrastructure projects–specifically the Red Line Extension and the Red and Purple Modernization Project–have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting,” Vought declared.

Politico’s E&E News reported this week that the Department of Energy “has been reviewing the nation’s portfolio of research and development projects for months now, freezing funding that was largely obligated, according to one agency staffer granted anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press.”

“Lists of projects that are supposed to get cut have been wafting around the building for weeks,” a staffer told E&E. “Most of the time, they are very partisan in terms of what states canceled projects are from. It’s just naked politics.”

READ MORE: Leavitt Explains White House Claim ‘Illegals’ Get Free Health Care—Experts Disagree

Image via Wikimedia Commons / Public domain