'Not our position': Leavitt dodges reporter's question about widely debunked claim

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a press briefing at the Brady Press Briefing Room, in the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 3, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

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.”

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.”

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.”

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