This is utterly outrageous. Millions of Americans (many work at jobs that provide no health insurance) who would love these legislators to require their employers to provide health insurance. What about American citizens being FIRST?
If it were required that "immigrants" have health checks after entering our country, it would be futile because they typically "disappear" and communicable diseases are not diagnosed until they are spread wherever the immigrants settle?
This is a border control / immigration issue, not one that should be subsidized by American employers. Will this type of legislation push even more American businesses over the edge and force them to move their operations to Mexico or overseas? My guess is Yes.
I haven't heard about this before, but I suspect part of the motivation behind it is to limit the government's exposure on Medicaid payouts and hospital losses for indigent patients. Citizens already have the right to apply for Medicaid (so they're already covered to some extent, although at a pretty low level). If it's required for employers to supply health insurance for immigrants, this does two things:
1) The cost of hiring immigrants goes up, which may increase the availability of jobs for at least some citizens, and
2) The cost of providing health care for immigrant workers is borne by those workers and/or their employers, so that the tax burden on citizens is limited since the immigrants won't get into the Medicaid system.
Both of these seem to me that they're actually good things ... however I do agree that this shouldn't be confused with a rational border policy ...