The White House announced Friday that it is moving forward with an initiative to expand access to health insurance for about 100,000 immigrants covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.

The Biden administration’s move comes during an election year in which immigration has become a salient issue, and it stands in sharp contrast to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to curtail protections for DACA recipients.

In a statement, President Joe Biden touted his administration’s efforts to “preserve and fortify” the DACA program, which allows “dreamers” — those who were brought into the country without documentation as children — to work and live in the United States. The program was originally created in 2012 under President Barack Obama when Biden was vice president.

“Dreamers are our loved ones, our nurses, teachers, and small business owners. And they deserve the promise of health care just like all of us,” Biden said Friday. “... And that’s why today we are taking this historic step to ensure that DACA recipients have the same access to health care through the Affordable Care Act as their neighbors.”

Under the plan, DACA participants who have previously been excluded from enrolling in a qualified health plan or a basic health program through the Medicaid and Affordable Care Act marketplaces will be allowed to do so.

The new policy will become effective Nov. 1, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. After that, newly eligible individuals will be able to select a qualifying health plan through the federal marketplaces during a special 60-day enrollment period, which will coincide with the 2025 open enrollment period for all other Americans.

The department noted that those without health insurance are less likely to receive preventive or routine health screenings, incurring high costs and debts when they do seek care.

“More than one third of DACA recipients currently do not have health insurance, so making them eligible to enroll in coverage will improve their health and wellbeing, and help the overall economy,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement.

In an email Friday, a representative for Donald Trump’s campaign described Biden’s move to expand health care for DACA recipients as “handouts for illegal immigrants.”

“Joe Biden continues to force hardworking, tax-paying, struggling Americans to pay for the housing, welfare, and now the healthcare of illegal immigrants,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt wrote. “This is unfair and unsustainable. … President Trump will put America and the American worker first.”

Biden has called on Congress to act on his immigration reform plan - sent the day he took office - to provide dreamers permanent status and a pathway to citizenship.

Immigration has become a top issue for the November election, both for the campaigns of the presumptive candidates — Biden and Trump — as well as for voters. A Gallup poll released this week showed that 27 percent of Americans said immigration was the most important problem facing the country, the third consecutive month it has remained the top concern for voters.

In March, both Biden and Trump took separate trips to the Texas border to blame each other for a surge in illegal immigration. Biden has repeatedly urged Congress to pass a bipartisan border security bill that many Republicans had supported — until Trump publicly opposed the package for political reasons.

Trump, meanwhile, has amped up his rhetoric against migrants through the election cycle, accusing undocumented immigrants of “poisoning the blood of our country” and saying that some are “not people.” As president, Trump tried to dismantle the DACA program, but the Supreme Court blocked the effort.

Kica Matos, president of the nonprofit National Immigration Law Center, celebrated the Biden administration’s announcement Friday but, like the president, also called on Congress to pass a pathway to citizenship for dreamers.

“Even as we celebrate this victory, we must also remember that politically motivated attacks on DACA continue, DACA recipients remain in limbo, and the health and wellbeing of our communities has suffered as a result,” Matos said in a statement.