20 states sue after the Trump administration releases private Medicaid data to deportation officials
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s advisers ordered the release of a dataset that includes the private health information of people living in California, Illinois, Washington state, and Washington, D.C., to the Department of Homeland Security last month, The Associated Press first reported last month. All of those states allow non-U.S. citizens to enroll in Medicaid programs that pay for their expenses using only state taxpayer dollars.
The unusual data sharing of private health information, including addresses, names, social security numbers, immigration status, and claims data for enrollees in those states, was released to deportation officials as they accelerated enforcement efforts across the country. The data could be used to help the Department of Homeland Security locate migrants in its mass deportation campaign, experts said.
Bonta said the Trump administration's data release violates federal health privacy protection laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
'This is about flouting seven decades of federal law policy and practice that have made it clear that personal healthcare data is confidential and can only be shared in certain narrow circumstances that benefit the public's health or the Medicaid program,' Bonta said during a news conference on Tuesday.
The Trump administration has sought to arm deportation officials with more data on immigrants. In May, for example, a federal judge refused to block the Internal Revenue Service from sharing immigrants' tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help agents locate and detain people living without legal status in the U.S.
The move to shore up the federal government's data on immigrant Medicaid enrollees appears to have been set in motion in May, when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced it would be reviewing some states rolls to ensure federal funds have not been used to pay for coverage for people with 'unsatisfactory immigration status.'
As part of the review, CMS asked California, Washington and Illinois to share details about non-U.S. citizens who have enrolled in their state's Medicaid program, according to a June 6 memo signed by Medicaid Deputy Director Sara Vitolo that was obtained by the AP. The memo was written by several CMS officials under Vitolo's supervision, according to sources familiar with the process.
CMS officials attempted to fight the data sharing request from Homeland Security, saying that to do so would violate federal laws, including the Social Security Act and the Privacy Act of 1974, according to the memo.
The legal arguments outlined in the memo were not persuasive to Trump appointees at HHS, which oversees the Medicaid agency.
Four days after the memo was sent, on June 10, HHS officials directed the transfer of 'the data to DHS by 5:30 ET today,' according to email exchanges obtained by AP.
HHS is 'aggressively cracking down on states that may be misusing federal Medicaid funds,' agency spokesman Andrew Nixon said in a statement. The agency has not provided details on DHS' role in the effort. Nixon also defended the legality of releasing the data to DHS.
'HHS acted entirely within its legal authority – and in full compliance with all applicable laws – to ensure that Medicaid benefits are reserved for individuals who are lawfully entitled to receive them,' he said in the statement.
Dozens of Democratic members of Congress — in both the House and Senate — have sent letters to the involved agencies, demanding that data sharing cease and that Homeland Security destroy the information it has received so far. —
Associated Press writer Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco contributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
39 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Trump's mass deportation plans for 520,000 Haitian migrants hit with major setback
Donald Trump 's plan to deport hundreds of thousands of illegal Haitian immigrants was shot down by a New York court. A federal district court judge in Brooklyn rejected President Trump's plans to end temporary protection status (TPS) for 520,000 Haitian migrants living in the U.S. The TPS designation was set to expire on August 3 and termination was meant to go into effect on September 2. But U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan said that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem went against the timeline set forth by Congress to reconsider the designation for migrants from the Caribbean island. 'Secretary Noem does not have statutory or inherent authority to partially vacate a country's TPS designation,' Cogan wrote in his Tuesday decision. He said that her actions to end the status were 'unlawful.' The federal government, however, can still freely enforce immigration laws and terminate TPS. The ruling came down the same day that Trump and Noem were in the Florida Everglades with Gov. Ron DeSantis to visit the new immigration detention center dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz.' The facility is designed to hold up to 5,000 migrants and supports the administration's mass deportation agenda. DHS said days before Cogan's ruling that the decision to end the TPS for Haitians ensures it is only a temporary status and not a tool used to circumvent the traditional route to gain citizenship or other documentation to live and work in the U.S. They claim it restores integrity of the U.S. immigration system and legal pathways. 'The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home,' a spokesperson said on Friday. 'We encourage these individuals to take advantage of the Department's resources in returning to Haiti, which can be arranged through the CBP Home app. Haitian nationals may pursue lawful status through other immigration benefit requests, if eligible.' The Immigration Act of 1990 created TPS with the intention of allowing residents of foreign countries to seek refuge in the U.S. while their home nations were facing war, natural disasters, political uprisings or other unsafe conditions. The program is able to be extended in 18-month increments. Haitians were first granted TPS by the U.S. in 2011 after two hurricanes rocked the poor island nation. In 2013 and 2015 the status was extended for 18-month periods each time. At the end of the 2015 decision to continue TPS, in 2017 it was extended for six more months with a termination of July 22, 2019. But that easy delayed by lawsuits. In May 2021 the TPS status was redesignated for 18 months due to the ongoing political crisis in Haiti along with human rights abuses and economic challenges. On December 5, 2022 it was extended again. The previous administration extended it on June 28, 2024 to expire on February 3, 2026 for any Haitians living in the U.S. as of June 3, 2024. But Noem amended this on February 20, 2025 an d set it to expire in August. Cogan claims that she cannot redesignate the expiration outside the 18-month extension period laid out by Congress. Cogan wrote in his decision that Haitians' interest in living and working in America 'far outweigh' potential harm to the U.S. government. It's unclear whether that's a sound legal justification for ruling against the federal-level decision to end TPS for Haitians and remove migrants living in the U.S. without permanent status. Noem originally decided to revoke TPS from these migrants after reviewing a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) report showing that Haiti no longer met the statutory requirements that grant foreign residents the ability to obtain this protection status. Haitians living in the U.S. under TPS are encouraged by DHS to use the CBP Home app to secure a complimentary ticket for a departure flight home to their island along with a $1,000 exit bonus for those who voluntarily leave.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Mayors sue over Trump's efforts to restrict Obamacare signups
New Trump administration rules that give millions of people a shorter timeframe to sign up for the Affordable Care Act's health care coverage are facing a legal challenge from Democratic mayors around the country. The rules, rolled out last month, reverse a Biden-era effort to expand access to the Affordable Care Act's health insurance, commonly called 'Obamacare' or the ACA. The previous Democratic administration expanded the enrollment window for the coverage, which led to record enrollment. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rolled out a series of new restrictions for Obamacare late last month, just as Congress was weighing a major bill that will decrease enrollment in the health care program that Donald Trump has scorned for years. As many as 2 million people – nearly 10% – are expected to lose coverage from the health department's new rules. The mayors of Baltimore, Chicago and Columbus, Ohio, sued the federal health department on Tuesday over the rules, saying they will result in more uninsured residents and overburden city services. 'Cloaked in the pretense of government efficiency and fraud prevention, the 2025 Rule creates numerous barriers to affordable insurance coverage, negating the purpose of the ACA to extend affordable health coverage to all Americans, and instead increasing the population of underinsured and uninsured Americans,' the filing alleges. Two liberal advocacy groups – Doctors for America and Main Street Alliance – joined in on the complaint. The federal health department announced a series of changes late last month to the ACA. It will shorten the enrollment period for the federal marketplace by a month, limiting it to 1 November to 15 December in 2026. Income verification checks will become more stringent and a $5 fee will be tacked on for some people who automatically re-enroll in a free plan. Insurers will also be able to deny coverage to people who have not paid their premiums on past plans. The rules also bar roughly 100,000 immigrants who were brought to the US as children from signing up for the coverage. The new rules 'safeguard the future of the marketplace', and will lower premiums for those who remain in the program, HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said in a statement. 'The rule closes loopholes, strengthens oversight, and ensures taxpayer subsidies go to those who are truly eligible – that's not controversial, it's common sense,' Nixon said. But the three mayors argue that the polices were introduced without an adequate public comment period on the policies. 'This unlawful rule will force families off their health insurance and raise costs on millions of Americans. This does nothing to help people and instead harms Americans' health and safety across our country,' said Skye Perryman, the president of Democracy Forward, which is representing the coalition of plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The lawsuit does not challenge the Trump administration's restriction on immigrants signing up for the coverage. The Biden administration saw gains in Obamacare enrollment as a major success of the Democratic president's term, noting that a record 24 million people signed up for the coverage, thanks to generous tax breaks offered through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. But the program has been a target of Trump, who has said it is riddled with problems that make the coverage unaffordable for many without large subsidies. Enrollment in the program dipped during his first term in office.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
USAID officially closes, attracting condemnation from Obama and Bush
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has officially closed its doors after President Donald Trump gradually dismantled the agency over its allegedly wasteful than 80% of all the agency's programmes were cancelled as of March, and on Tuesday the remainder were formally absorbed by the state shuttering of USAID - which administered aid for the US government, the world's largest such provider - has been newly criticised by former Presidents Barack Obama and George W aid cuts could cause more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, according to a warning published by researchers in the Lancet medical journal. The authors of the Lancet report called the numbers "staggering", and projected that a third of those at risk of premature deaths were children.A state department official said the study used "incorrect assumptions" and insisted that the US would continue to administer aid in a "more efficient" way, the AFP news agency in 1961, USAID previously employed some 10,000 people, two-thirds of whom worked overseas, according to the Congressional Research Service. The controversial cuts began early in Trump's second term, when billionaire and former presidential adviser Elon Musk was tasked with shrinking the federal workforce. The move was widely condemned by humanitarian organisations around the world. Among the programmes that were curbed were efforts to provide prosthetic limbs to soldiers injured in Ukraine, to clear landmines in various countries, and to contain the spread of Ebola in Wednesday morning, the agency's website continued to display a message saying that all USAID direct-hire personnel globally had been placed on administrative leave from 23 February. What is USAID and why is Trump closing it down?How a US freeze upended global aid in a matter of days'People will starve' because of US aid cut to SudanInside an Islamic State camp shaken by US aid cuts Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously said that the remaining 1,000 programmes after the cuts would be administered under his department. "This era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has officially come to an end," he added on Tuesday. "Under the Trump Administration, we will finally have a foreign funding mission in America that prioritizes our national interests," he wrote in a post on has repeatedly said he wants overseas spending to be closely aligned with his "America First" and Obama delivered their messages of condemnation in a video conference they hosted with U2 singer Bono for thousands of members the USAID community. Bush, a fellow member of Trump's Republican Party, focused on the impact of cuts to an AIDS and HIV programme that was started by his administration and subsequently credited with saving 25 million lives. "You've showed the great strength of America through your work - and that is your good heart,'' Bush told USAID workers in a recorded statement, according to US media. "Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is, and so do you."Meanwhile Obama, a member of the opposition Democratic Party, affirmed the work that USAID employees had already done. "Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it's a tragedy. Because it's some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world," Obama was quoted as saying. Long-time humanitarian advocate Bono spoke about the millions of people who he said could die because of the cuts. "They called you crooks, when you were the best of us," he told attendees of the video was seen as integral to the global aid system. After Trump's cuts were announced, other countries followed suit with their own reductions - including the UK, France and month, the United Nations said it was dealing with "the deepest funding cuts ever to hit the international humanitarian sector".
