The White House and congressional Republicans are capitalizing on Democrats’ demands to help illegal immigrants access public services to blame them for a looming government shutdown.

“Radical Democrats” are threatening to shut the government down if they do not get their almost $1.5 trillion wish list of demands in a short-term funding deal, “including free healthcare for illegal aliens,” according to the White House. The reference is to Democrats’ requests to repeal One Big Beautiful Bill provisions that targeted illegal immigrants’ access to healthcare in exchange for their votes on a short-term government funding deal.