ST. PAUL — Adults living in the U.S. illegally will be excluded from a state-run health care program under an overall budget deal that the closely divided Minnesota Legislature convened to pass in a special session Monday.

Repealing a 2023 state law that made those immigrants eligible for the MinnesotaCare program for the working poor was a priority for Republicans in the negotiations that produced the budget agreement. The Legislature is split 101-100, with the House tied and Democrats holding just a one-seat majority in the Senate, and the health care compromise was a bitter pill for Democrats to accept.

The change is expected to affect about 17,000 residents.

After an emotional near four-hour debate, the House aroved the bill 68-65. Under the agreement, the top House Democratic leader, Melissa Hortman, of Brooklyn Park, was the only member of her caucus to vote yes. The bill then went to the Senate, where it passed 37-30. Democratic Majority Leader Erin Murphy, of St. Paul, called it “a wound on the soul of Minnesota,” but kept her promise to vote yes as part of the deal, calling it “among the most painful votes I’ve ever taken.”

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who insisted on maintaining eligibility for children who aren’t in the country legally, has promised to sign the legislation, and all 13 other bills scheduled for action in the special session, to complete a $66 billion, two-year budget that will take effect July 1.

“This is 100% about the GOP campaign against immigrants,” said House Democratic Floor Leader Jamie Long, of Minneapolis, who voted no. “From Trump’s renewed travel ban announced this week, to his effort to expel those with protected status, to harassing students here to study, to disproportionate military and law enforcement responses that we’ve seen from Minneapolis to L.A., this all comes back to attacking immigrants and the name of dividing us.”