Judge Allows ICE to Access Some Medicaid Data on Illegal Immigrants

A federal judge has allowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to obtain basic Medicaid data on illegal immigrants as part of its enforcement operations. In a preliminary injunction on Dec. 29, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria said that federal law allowed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to share basic biographical, location, and contact information with ICE. Chhabria’s order stopped short of allowing other information to be shared, stating that ICE was too vague in its explanation of what other types of information it would seek and its reasons for doing so. This injunction was the third Chhabria has issued over the course of litigation between the Trump administration and more than 20 blue or purple states. Medicaid, a joint state and federal government program, generally forbids benefits for illegal immigrants but contains exceptions for emergency care and other programs funded only by states....