President Trump's administration this week provided deportation officials with personal data—including immigration status—on millions of Medicaid enrollees, a move that could make it easier to locate people as part of his sweeping immigration crackdown. An internal memo and emails obtained by the AP show that Medicaid officials unsuccessfully sought to block the data transfer, citing legal and ethical concerns. Nevertheless, two top advisers to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered the dataset handed over to the Department of Homeland Security, the emails show. Officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services were given just 54 minutes on Tuesday to comply with the directive.
The dataset includes the information of people living in California, Illinois, Washington state, and Washington, DC, all of which allow non-US citizens to enroll in Medicaid programs that pay for their expenses using only state taxpayer dollars. Besides helping authorities locate migrants, experts said, the government could also use the information to scuttle the hopes of migrants seeking green cards, permanent residency, or citizenship if they'd ever obtained Medicaid benefits funded by the federal government.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom's office said in a statement that it was concerned about how deportation officials might utilize the data, especially as federal authorities conduct immigration raids with the assistance of National Guard troops and Marines in Los Angeles. "We deeply value the privacy of all Californians," the statement said. "This potential data transfer brought to our attention by the AP is extremely concerning, and if true, potentially unlawful." A US Health and Human Services rep said the data sharing was legal, though he declined to answer questions about why the data was shared with DHS and how it would be used.
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The initiative appears to be part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to provide DHS with more data on migrants. In May, for example, a federal judge refused to block the IRS from sharing immigrants' tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help agents locate and detain people living without legal status in the US. More here.
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