A 22-year-old arrangement between the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Immigration and Customs Enforcement has drawn ire from conservatives in Congress, who claim it puts health care for detained migrants over that of veterans.
But VA officials say it has no impact whatsoever on veterans' services or health care -- and costs the agency nothing.
Since 2002, the VA's Financial Services Center, or FSC, has processed medical claims for an ICE program office that is responsible for providing health care for migrants detained by the border security agency. The VA center facilitates the same work under separate contracts for a variety of other federal offices.
VA officials said Thursday that, while taxpayer funding is used to process the health care claims, ICE, not the VA, pays for the work.
And, VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes added, the VA has never provided health care to migrant detainees.
"VA does not provide or fund any health care to ICE detainees. There is a 2002 payment processing agreement, in which ICE pays for the FSC to process payments for ICE-funded health care. This involves no more than 10 employees, is fully paid for by ICE, and has been in place for every administration since 2002," Hayes said in a statement to Military.com.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/01/11/va-paying-migrant-health-care-agency-says-no-despite-wave-of-political-attacks.html