Those seeking to legally immigrate to the U.S. must have health insurance, President Donald Trump declared in a proclamation he signed Friday.

"While our healthcare system grapples with the challenges caused by uncompensated care, the United States Government is making the problem worse by admitting thousands of aliens who have not demonstrated any ability to pay for their healthcare costs," reads the proclamation, which is set to take effect Nov. 3. "Immigrants who enter this country should not further saddle our healthcare system, and subsequently American taxpayers, with higher costs."

It declares the entry of "aliens who will financially burden the United States healthcare system is hereby suspended."

Anyone applying for an entry visa must show they will have coverage within 30 days of entering the country or that they have the money to cover "reasonably foreseeable medical costs." It does not specify the dollar figure needed but says that a consular officer would determine if an applicant met the requirements before issuing a visa and that the secretary of state might "establish standards and procedures."

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Refugees, asylum seekers, unaccompanied minors and Iraqis or Afghans seeking a Special Immigrant Visa, and those holding visas before Nov. 3, would be exempt from the requirement.

Approved health care plans under the proclamation include employer-sponsored plans, family members' plans, catastrophic coverage, short-term coverage plans and Medicare plans. Migrants would not be able to use Medicaid plans or the subsidized plans offered on the state markets under the Affordable Care Act.

The proclamation also calls for an interdepartmental report to be submitted within 180 days on the "Financial Burdens Imposed by Immigrants on the Healthcare System."

The text of Trump's order states that "data show that lawful immigrants are about three times more likely than United States citizens to lack health insurance." According to a September report from the Census Bureau, 6.8% of those born in the U.S. were uninsured in 2018, compared with 18.9% of those born in another country.

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Among the foreign-born who are naturalized citizens, the uninsured rate is 8.8%, according to the census. Slightly more than half of those born outside the U.S. are not citizens. According to a July study from the Kaiser Family Foundation, about 60% of those non-citizens entered the U.S. lawfully. Among them, the uninsured rate is 23%, the KFF study said.

Immigrants rights groups decried the president's proclamation.

"Trump is yet again pointing the finger at immigrant communities to distract us from his scandals. This latest attack on immigrants is not good for hospitals, it's not good for patients & it's not good for the health & well-being of communities across the country," tweeted the National Immigration Law Center.

"This is the Trump administration’s latest attempt to restrict immigration to only the wealthy and use economic status to discriminate instead of trying to reunite families, " said Karen Baynes-Dunning, interim president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

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"Without the power to change U.S. law on his own, Trump is trying to find end runs around Congress and the legislative process to impose his will by fiat," Julie Dinnerstein, an immigration lawyer with CUNY Citizenship NOW, told The New York Times.

And the move was blasted by Democrats.

"The United States doesn’t even offer guaranteed healthcare for *its own citizens,* yet wants to demand it from people of other national origins," tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. "Hypocrisy, xenophobia, and barbarism all in one policy."

"It seems every day the Trump Administration reaches a new low of cruelty," tweeted Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. "This rule will do nothing to help families struggling with high health care costs as a result of this Administration’s policies."

"Donald Trump is panicking, and using cruel attacks on immigrants to distract and sow fear. Immigrants contribute more to this country than Donald Trump or Stephen Miller ever could – and their hate won’t stop us from speaking out in defense of immigrants," said former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, a 2020 presidential candidate.

Trump adviser Stephen Miller has been one of the chief architects of Trump's moves to cut immigration, both legal and illegal, into the U.S.

The new restriction is part of a broader strategy to reduce the number of immigrants entering the U.S. In August, the administration issued a rule that would allow officials to deny green cards to migrants if they believe the recipients will receive public benefits like food stamps, Medicaid or housing vouchers.

The proclamation says Trump has the power to issue such an order under sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act. One of those sections says the president can suspend "the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States" whose presence "would be detrimental to the interests of the United States."

The same law was used to justify Trump's ban on immigration from a group of predominantly Muslim nations as well as his attempt to block migrants from seeking asylum.

Contributing: David Jackson and John Fritze, USA TODAY; the Associated Press