The Trump administration will allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to access the personal data of millions of Americans enrolled in Medicaid.
An agreement obtained by the Associated Press shows that ICE will be able to use details such as home addresses and ethnicities to find undocumented immigrants.
It is part of an arrangement between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Homeland Security.
Highlights
- ICE will access Medicaid data including addresses and ethnicities to identify undocumented immigrants for deportation.
- “ICE will use the CMS data to allow ICE to receive identity and location information on aliens identified by ICE,” the agreement states.
- A 20-state coalition sued to stop ICE from using Medicaid data, citing violations of HIPAA and federal privacy laws.
- Critics warn politicization of health data undermines public trust and may deter vulnerable groups from seeking care.
ICE will be able to access the data of millions enrolled in Medicaid
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“ICE will use the CMS data to allow ICE to receive identity and location information on aliens identified by ICE,” the agreement states.
There are about 71 million Americans on Medicaid, and while undocumented immigrants cannot fully enroll, they can receive emergency, life-saving treatment under the program in hospital emergency rooms.
Last month, Health and Human Services (HHS) officials told AP that any data sharing would be used to ensure everyone enrolled in Medicaid was entitled and not committing fraud.
Serious concerns were raised, with critics arguing it violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and other federal privacy statutes.
A lawsuit was launched by a coalition of 20 states on July 3 in a bid to obtain a preliminary injunction to halt the data-sharing with ICE.
Details of the agreement reported Thursday now show that ICE intends to use that information, which it will have access to during limited hours, to deport people from the U.S.
There are concerns that the move risks deterring vulnerable populations from seeking care and might erode public trust.
While ICE won’t be able to download the data, it will have access to social security numbers, racial and ethnic information, home addresses, names, and birthdates, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday and Friday, until September 9.
There are fears the personal healthcare data of Americans is being politicized
Image credits: The White House
Since President Donald Trump began his second term in January, there have been concerns that healthcare data is being used as a political weapon.
Back in April, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced plans to use private medical data to form an autism registry.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) said it would gather comprehensive data from both federal and commercial databases in aid of RFK Jr.’s autism study.
At the time, a health database to monitor Americans diagnosed with autism was being developed so that their information could be incorporated.
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NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said the NIH was also trying to broaden agreements governing access to data from the CMS.
Campaigners strongly condemned the autism registry as “a dystopian surveillance project disguised as research.”
“What he’s really doing is weaponizing pseudoscience and state power to pathologize neurodivergence,” Georgia political organizer Seth Taylor said at the time.
“This registry echoes eugenic projects of the past—collecting data not to empower autistic people, but to diagnose, target, and ultimately eliminate us as we are.”
Then, in June, a federal judge in Texas struck down a Biden-era HIPAA rule that had added extra privacy protections for reproductive healthcare.
Image credits: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
The law restricted the disclosure of abortion-related medical data and gender-affirming treatments by preventing healthcare providers and insurers from giving out personal reproductive health information to authorities for investigations.
Trump-appointed Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk deemed it unlawful, saying HHS under Biden overstepped its authority and restricted state laws requiring disclosure of medical records for investigations like child abuse.
Its removal opens the door for law enforcement access to reproductive health records in anti‑abortion states, raising fears that private medical information will be used to investigate patients or providers.
With personal health data being used for immigration enforcement, reproductive surveillance, and controversial research, critics warn that policies risk turning medical databases into tools of political control.