Tacoma Daily Index | March 6, 2026
OLYMPIA – Union members and caregivers rallied on the Capitol steps March 3, urging state lawmakers to protect health care access for immigrants in the face of potential budget cuts. The rally, organized by SEIU 775, drew roughly 100 protestors from across the state carrying signs reading “Care cuts kills,” “Care has no borders” and “Billionaires are stealing from us” while echoing chants in English, Spanish and Ukrainian. Due to federal funding cuts, the ability of immigrants across the nation to access health care through programs like Medicaid has become severely limited.
In 2024, Washington launched the Apple Health Expansion program to provide full health care coverage for low-income immigrants in the state who do not qualify for standard Medicaid. Unlike regular Apple Health, Washington’s name for Medicaid, which is funded by a mix of federal and state dollars, the expansion program is financed entirely by state funds. However, SEIU 775 warned that the operating budgets proposed by the state Senate and House fail to provide adequate funding for Apple Health, leaving 30,000 of Washington’s immigrant community with no access to health care.
Shaine Truscott, a SEIU 775 vice president, said Washington legislators can do better. “As you talk about your numbers, you need to think about the lives, think about what these dollars mean to real people, live up to the values we know you hold dear and make sure that not a single life is left without care,” she said.
Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self, D-Mukilteo, and Sen. Rebecca Saldaña, D-Seattle, both spoke at the rally, emphasizing their commitment to fighting for immigrant rights in the Legislature.
“Unlike the federal government and Trump, your budget writers are very much thinking about each of those numbers being a person,” Saldaña said, “and they are wrestling right now with how do we find the pennies and the dimes and the dollars to make sure that we do not leave anyone behind.”
One Washingtonian who will feel the impacts of cuts to immigrant health care access is Nataliia Bielokon, a Ukrainian refugee and caregiver to her 73-year-old mother. Her mother is set to lose Medicaid coverage in October due to her noncitizen status, something Bielokon said will have “devastating consequences” for her family.
She called on lawmakers to reconsider the budget.
“We have people who work hard, we are building our lives here,” Bielokon said. “Cutting off access to health care dumps us into medical poverty … I urge our lawmakers, don’t see this as just [a] line item in [the] budget. See it for what it really is, a critical investment in the health of our entire community.”
Time to make changes to the budget is quickly running out, with the Legislature set to adjourn for the session March 12.
While she acknowledged the challenging fiscal decisions faced by legislators this year, Jennifer Contreras, campaigns manager for the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, said “balancing a budget on the backs of immigrants and refugee families is unacceptable.”
“Health care is not optional,” she said. “It is not expendable. It is a lifeline, and we demand that it be protected.”