Background: Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Denver, Colorado (KDVR/YouTube). Inset: President Donald Trump speaks from the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025 (Photo by Aaron Schwartz/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images).
The Trump administration may soon share certain Medicaid information about suspected undocumented immigrants with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a federal judge ruled.
In a 7-page order issued on Monday, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria found that sharing "citizenship and immigration status, address, phone number, date of birth, and Medicaid ID" is "clearly authorized by law" and that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sufficiently explained to the court why they made the "abrupt departure from their past policies of not sharing or using Medicaid data for immigration enforcement purposes."
The agency had reasoned that President Donald Trump issued multiple executive orders demanding that agencies, among other things, carry out immigration laws and "secure our borders."
Chhabria's opinion is a victory for the administration to that end. Beginning on Jan. 6, DHS and HHS may share the data with ICE about suspected undocumented immigrants who receive public health insurance, opening up another avenue for immigration law enforcement officers to track down those they believe are here illegally. However, what data they can give is limited.
Chhabria, a Barack Obama appointee, was responding to a motion for a preliminary injunction filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta on behalf of his state and 21 others, which sought to stop the sharing of additional information, which Chhabria granted.
Bonta and the other states filed a lawsuit on July 1, targeting HHS's Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) handing over of "a trove of individuals' protected health data" to other federal agencies, including DHS, "without their consent." Chhabria proceeded to bar the administration from sharing Medicaid data "obtained from the plaintiff states for immigration enforcement purpose" while the case played out and the agencies explained their actions.
The judge determined the Trump administration may not share information beyond "basic biographical, location, and contact" because the federal government's "new policies are totally unclear about what that information would be, why it would be needed for immigration enforcement purposes, and what the risks of sharing it with DHS would be."
Such reasoning would rule out the government acting "arbitrarily" in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, the statute governing federal agencies' behavior. And so while Chhabria opined in the recent order that DHS and HHS adequately explained their actions, allowing for the sharing of certain data, he also found that significant questions remain.
The judge wrote, at length:
Beyond the basic information discussed above, the policies are totally unclear and do not appear to be the product of a coherent decisionmaking process. It is unclear (1) whether DHS may obtain from HHS any information relevant to any proceedings beyond criminal immigration investigations or civil enforcement actions; (2) what data DHS is authorized to obtain from HHS on a "case-by-case" basis and what factors are considered in such inquiries; and (3) whether DHS may request any data from HHS about citizens or lawful permanent residents, including members of mixed-status households. It's even an open question whether the policies would allow HHS to share sensitive medical information about Medicaid patients with DHS— information that's difficult to imagine the agency needing for any legitimate purpose. Furthermore, neither the ICE Memo nor the CMS Notice address why a more narrowly tailored policy, focused on the basic biographical information discussed above, would not suffice for immigration enforcement purposes.
Chhabria's order consequently narrowed the Medicaid information that the administration can share.
"To the extent that such basic biographical, contact, or location information about unlawfully present aliens is not severable from other information that DHS and ICE are not entitled to obtain (e.g., information about lawful permanent residents or citizens, sensitive health records), HHS or CMS may not share it," he wrote. If DHS requests that additional information be made available to them, they must approach the court.
A spokesperson for the California Department of Justice told Politico after the ruling that individuals signed up for the state's health care program under the belief their personal information would be used solely for their health care.
"The Trump Administration's effort to use Medicaid data for immigration enforcement is a violation of their trust and will lead to fewer people seeking vital healthcare," the agency said in a statement.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, on the other hand, called the court ruling "a victory for the rule of law and American taxpayers."