Kendall County Times

With Illinois poised to become the first state in the country to provide Medicaid benefits to undocumented immigrants, former 14th Congressional District candidate James Marter fears the state may never be the same.

“The timing for this couldn’t be worse given the state just shut down for more than three months and the state economy is in complete shambles,” Marter, a Republican, told the West Cook News. “With everything that’s going on, you wonder how Democrats can come to the conclusion that this is the way to go.”

The bill paves the way for noncitizens over the age of 65 with incomes of $12,670 or less to receive Medicaid benefits beginning July 1, 2021. Marter said it’s just the latest example of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s iron-fisted way of doing things that turn out all wrong.

“The stay-at-home order he enacted that has the state in such dire straits was done without any input from the legislature,” he said. “He’s bankrupting the state to the point we can’t pay any of our bills and we continue to have to borrow billions just to hold things together. The governor simply manages to create one problem after another.”

Marter said Pritzker’s latest moves send all the wrong signals about what the state now stands for.

“We have to stop incentivizing illegal immigration and this bill is just more of that,” he said. “We can be a considerate place without making ourselves a magnet for illegal immigration and people that have broken the law to be in our country.”

Recently re-elected as Kendall County Republican Party Chairman, Marter was one of five candidates to net double-digit support in the March Republican primary won by veteran state Sen. Jim Oberweis with 25 percent of the vote.