Rep. Alex Dallman, R-Markesan, introduced Assembly Bill 308 — intended to prohibit funding for health services for unlawfully present individuals — which was heard by the Wisconsin House State Affairs Committee Sept. 4, according to the 2025-2026 Wisconsin Legislature records.
Dallman introduced AB308 six months after Minnesota’s health care service for low-income individuals, MinnesotaCare, stopped using immigration status as an eligibility requirement, according to Minnesota Public Radio. It is estimated that this would cost Minnesota taxpayers around $200 million over the next four years, but the provision has since been reversed, according to MPR.
AB308 intends to explicitly prevent similar access to health care from being introduced in Wisconsin. It states that no level of Wisconsin government shall use its tax funding to subsidize, reimburse or otherwise provide compensation for health care services for individuals living here without the permission of the law.
“Taxpayer funds should not be going to fund welfare for undocumented illegal immigrants. I look forward to moving this bill through the legislative process and ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent on hardworking Wisconsinites,” Dallman said in an Aug. 21 press release.
Rep. Dallman did not respond to The Badger Herald’s requests for a comment.
Rep. Renuka Mayadev, D-Madison, former program advisor for the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, spoke to The Badger Herald about why a bill like this would be introduced, and how it may impact her constituents and Wisconsin as a whole.
“It’s just a following of the Trump propaganda that we see coming out of Washington,” Mayadev said. “It’s fear-mongering of those who are part of our community. They’re part of our very important industries, like the dairy industry — over 70% are undocumented workers.”
The Wisconsin dairy industry contributes $52.8 billion annually to the state economy, according to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. It is by far the largest portion of Wisconsin’s agricultural sector and is one of the biggest industries in the state as a whole, according to the DATCP report.
One Wisconsin farmer told a colleague of Mayadev that a family of individuals unauthorized to work in the U.S. has worked for them for over three decades and are an integral part of the farm and the work they do.
“There’s just this extension of the Trump agenda, which is to create fear and otherness, even in our communities where it’s not necessary and really it’s not wanted,” Mayadev said.
Voices of Courage for Equity and Social justice state organizer Luis Velasquez as well as executives Karen Romo and Yeraldy Ramirez from the UW chapter, provided their perspective on the bill. VOCES is the leading immigrant workers’ rights organization, Velasquez said.
Velasquez feels that the bill is short-sighted and harmful to all Wisconsinites, not just to individuals unauthorized to reside in the U.S.
“It doesn’t save money, and it may seem like it, but it doesn’t because it shifts the costs to taxpayers. It drives up the costs with emergency rooms. It puts the public health at risk,” Velasquez said.
Velasquez also said that this bill would be a barrier for children who are born as citizens of the U.S. but whose parents have entered the country unlawfully.
A study done by the UW School for Workers concluded that unlawfully present individuals comprise just over one percent of the state’s population.
“We’re being scapegoated. [AB308] is part of systematic and very dangerous anti-immigration policies and attitudes, and it reminds us of the 1930s with Nazi Germany,” Velasquez said.
President of the UW chapter of VOCES Romo said the increase in legislation regarding unlawfully present individuals is just another way to villainize people of color. She added how important she feels it is to avoid legislation like AB308 if Wisconsinites want to prevent it from snowballing into even more immigrant-focused legislation.
Mayadev also expressed confusion over the need for a bill such as AB308.
“We hear from superintendents and educators that they don’t have all the funds they need to educate our next generation of leaders,” Mayadev said. “It’s remarkable that we’re wasting time on things like Assembly Bill 308, which really doesn’t do anything right now.”
Individuals who are not authorized to live in the U.S. do not have access to Medicaid, Mayadev said. This only adds to her confusion regarding Dallman’s introduction of the bill, she said.
Medicaid is the joint federal and state health insurance program that subsidizes health care for people who are low-income, pregnant, have a disability or are otherwise unable to work. It is a way an unlawfully present individual could receive health care benefits from the government that they might need, if unlawfully present individuals weren’t considered ineligible according to the Wisconsin Medicaid Index.
Not only could the passage of a bill like this impact the people directly mentioned, but it also has the potential to set off a closing of Wisconsin hospitals and health services, Mayadev said.
“We saw this in Washington, D.C., with the big, brutal bill that was passed by the Republicans,” Rep. Mayadev said.
Rep. Dallman’s proposition is being sponsored by 25 Republican Wisconsin representatives, according to LegiScan, including Speaker of the House Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester. Three Republican senators in Wisconsin also co-sponsored the bill, according to Legiscan.
The sponsors introduced and read the bill for the first time to the Wisconsin Committee of State Affairs in early June, according to the Wisconsin State Legislature’s public records.
“Whenever I see the Speaker [of the House’s] name, I think to myself, ‘Well, this must be an important part of [the Republican] agenda.’” Mayadev said.
Republicans currently hold the majority of seats in the Wisconsin State Assembly, with 54 seats to Democrats’ 45 seats, according to the Wisconsin State Legislature
The results from the Sept. 4 hearing have yet to be published.
“So what is the purpose of this bill? I mean, again, I scratch my head and wonder why we’re not solving the problems Wisconsinites are facing,” Mayadev said.
