By John Binder

Copyright breitbart

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is contradicting fellow Democrats on the government shutdown, claiming the party is not looking to provide healthcare benefits to illegal aliens.

“Federal law prohibits the use of Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Affordable Care Act to provide health insurance in any way, shape, or form to undocumented immigrants. Period. Full stop. That’s the law. And Democrats aren’t trying to change that,” Jeffries told ABC’s Good Morning America on Wednesday.

The remark is a direct contradiction of what several House and Senate Democrats have said regarding the government shutdown.

For instance, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) suggested Thursday in an interview with CBS News that only a “small population” of “people that are legally in this country” — alluding to perhaps those migrants paroled into the United States by the Biden administration — would receive taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits under the Democrats’ plan.

“What I really care about is the [Affordable Care Act] … if they are so worried about the small population of people that are legally in this country, that they determined are somehow illegal, even they’re still illegal, are receiving, potentially, some of these credits, then give us the wording. I’m willing to work with them to cut them out,” Gallego said.

RELATED: The Sombrero Memes Will Continue Until the Shutdown Ends, Hakeem!

Likewise, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), when asked about Democrats seeking healthcare benefits for illegal aliens, said, “Democrats are demanding healthcare for everybody.”

Also, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) seemingly admitted that the government shutdown fight is, in fact, over healthcare benefits for illegal aliens during an interview with Fox Business.

“The amount of money that actually is going towards people who are undocumented is such a small portion of the Medicaid cuts or the Affordable Care Act, if at all,” Khanna said.

Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) told NewsNation that certain blue states have used loopholes to ensure that illegal aliens are rewarded with healthcare benefits.

“There are certain state programs, like California, that, if you’re undocumented and you go into the emergency room and you don’t have insurance, the emergency room, the hospital gets reimbursed through Medi-Cal,” Panetta said. “If you’re a child and you don’t have health insurance and you need to go and see a doctor, you can use Medicaid, and if you’re a pregnant mother, you can use Medicaid as well.”

Panetta then admitted that Democrats are interested in making it easier for “a certain very small percentage” of illegal aliens to secure taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits.

During a White House press briefing this week, Vice President JD Vance called out Democrats for shutting down the government over an issue like healthcare benefits for illegal aliens.

“To the American people who watching, the reason your government is shut down at this very minute is because, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of congressional Republicans and even a few moderate Democrats supported opening the government, the Chuck Schumer-AOC wing of the Democratic Party shut down the government because they said to us, ‘We will open the government, but only if you give billions of dollars of funding for healthcare for illegal aliens,’” Vance said. “That’s a ridiculous proposition.”

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.