The Trump administration has defied a federal judge’s order by sharing private information, including street addresses, of millions of low-income Americans with immigration officers who are conducting mass deportations, California and other states say in a court filing. The Trump administration doesn’t appear to be denying it.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of San Francisco issued an injunction last August ordering the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to stop providing data about recipients of Medicaid to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. The 78 million Americans who receive health care in the program, including 15 million Californians in Medi-Cal, provide personal information that the states forward to the federal government to verify their eligibility.
Chhabria later eased his restriction and allowed disclosure of data about undocumented immigrants, who are eligible for Medicaid in California and some other states, while keeping the ban in place for others. But state officials say the Trump administration is ignoring those limits.
Chhabria’s latest orders “stated explicitly that the data of citizens and lawful permanent residents is ‘off limits,’” but President Donald Trump’s health officials are apparently continuing to disclose those people’s personal information to ICE, lawyers for California and 21 other Democratic-led states said in a court filing last week.
“The Trump administration appears to be defying a direct court order blocking it from sharing the personal, sensitive damage of individuals including U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement urging the judge to enforce his order.
When Californians signed up for Medi-Cal, “they did so with the understanding that their data would not be used for purposes unrelated to administering this program,” Bonta said.
His filings included a statement from James Mangia, president and CEO of the Los Angeles-based nonprofit St. John’s Community Health, that its patients “have lost trust in the healthcare system and have expressed worry about seeking care, picking up medications, or even answering calls from their providers” since learning that their information was being shared with immigration officers.
Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, responded with a statement from an unidentified spokesperson declaring, without offering any evidence, that it was merely responding to an immigration crisis caused by former President Joe Biden.
“President Trump consistently promised to protect Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries,” the department said. “To keep that promise after Joe Biden flooded our country with tens of millions of illegal aliens, CMS (the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) and DHS will ensure that illegal aliens do not receive Medicaid benefits that are meant for law-abiding Americans.”
The Trump administration said in a March 13 court filing that ICE has kept its hands off the Medicaid data since Feb. 20. But the 22 states, led by California, asked Chhabria to hold a hearing April 30, require the administration to reveal the information that has been provided to ICE, and enforce his ban on further sharing of information.