A coalition of mostly Democrat-run states is suing the Trump administration for sharing Medicaid data with federal immigration officials.
Health and Human Services (HHS) violated federal privacy laws when it handed over Medicaid data on millions of enrollees to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), California Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta and a slate of other liberal prosecutors allege in a lawsuit filed Tuesday. The Democratic attorneys general fear the trove of health care data will help the Trump administration’s mass deportation goals. (RELATED: Bush-Appointed Judge Stops Trump Admin From Deporting Haitian Migrants Protected By Biden)
“Millions of individuals’ health information was transferred without their consent, and in violation of federal law,” plaintiffs stated, according to court documents.
“In doing so, the Trump administration silently destroyed longstanding guardrails that protected the public’s sensitive health data and restricted its use only for purposes that Congress has authorized, violating federal laws including the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA),” the plaintiffs continued.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JUNE 20: Federal agents patrol the halls of immigration court at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building on June 20, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The Trump administration in June provided deportation officials with personal data, including immigration status, on millions of Medicaid enrollees, potentially making it easier to locate these individuals, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. The shared data includes information on individuals who live in California, Washington, D.C., Illinois and Washington state — all of which allow noncitizens to enroll in their own Medicaid programs.
The states behind the courtroom challenge are California, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington, according to court documents. HHS, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem are named as defendants.
An HHS spokesperson said their actions were perfectly legal in a statement provided Wednesday.
“HHS acted entirely within its legal authority – and in full compliance with all applicable laws – to ensure that Medicaid benefits are reserved for individuals who are lawfully entitled to receive them,” comms director Andrew Nixon stated to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Under the leadership of Dr. Oz, [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] is aggressively cracking down on states that may be misusing federal Medicaid funds to subsidize care for illegal immigrants – that includes California.”
“This oversight effort – supported by lawful interagency data sharing with DHS – is focused on identifying waste, fraud, and systemic abuse,” Nixon continued. “We are not only protecting taxpayer dollars – we are restoring credibility to one of America’s most vital programs. The American people deserve accountability. HHS is delivering it.”
While the federal government reimburses states for most Medicaid expenditures, it does not reimburse them for illegal migrant healthcare beyond some emergency-related care, according to HHS. These budgetary rules have proven cumbersome as more Democrat-led states seek to give taxpayer-funded healthcare to illegal migrants, with even the Biden administration ordering California in 2024 to repay nearly $53 million to the federal government for “improperly” claiming reimbursements from the Medicaid program for illegal migrants and other non-citizens.
However, blue state ambitions have recently run into the reality of budget limitations. A trio of Democrat states — California, Minnesota and Illinois — have all recently been forced to consider cutting back taxpayer-funded healthcare services to illegal migrants and other noncitizens in the wake of ballooning costs and higher-than-expected enrollment.
The Trump administration has utilized a number of other novel means to aid its large-scale arrest and deportation efforts, such as tapping into Internal Revenue Service data to help locate illegal migrants across the U.S.
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