'Now you get to rewrite the law?': CNN panelist scoffs at ex-GOP lawmaker on immigration

The panel on CNN's "NewsNight with Abby Phillip" erupted on Thursday after a former GOP lawmaker claimed that people who immigrated to the U.S. with temporary protected status are "basically illegals."

Betsy McCaughey, the former REpublican Lt. Gov. of New York, joined NewsNight to defend claims made by Republicans that Democrats want to provide free health care to illegal immigrants in the next funding bill. Experts have said that Democrats are really trying to reinstate cuts to Medicaid for people with temporary protected status like refugees and asylum seekers.

"Remember, under Joe Biden, several million people were brought in under temporary protected status, and they were equivalent to illegal in the sense that they didn't wait the five years like other newcomers have to wait to be eligible for Medicaid," McCaughey said.

Her comments were met with fierce pushback from other panelists.

"Or equivalent," journalist Terry Moran scoffed. "So, now you get to rewrite the law because you don't like it?"

Republicans have consistently claimed, without evidence, that Democrats are trying to provide free health care benefits to immigrants to justify the government shutdown. However, some have speculated that the shutdown serves a different purpose.

Fox News host Jesse Watters has suggested Republicans could use it to take away Temporary Protected Status from millions of immigrants. Others have said Republicans could use it to reduce the federal workforce.