Illinois joins 20 states suing after 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, 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.
Trump administration gives personal data of immigrant Medicaid enrollees, including people in Illinois, to deportation officialsFour 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. —
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
25 minutes ago
- CBS News
Watch Live: House nearing final vote on Trump's "big, beautiful bill"
Washington — The House is nearing a final vote Thursday on President Trump's "big, beautiful bill" after Republican leaders overcame resistance from GOP holdouts in a dramatic overnight session and advanced the Senate version of the measure early Thursday morning. "We'll have the votes," House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday morning. "We'll land this plane before July 4th." Republicans are trying to approve the final version of the legislation ahead of the self-imposed Friday deadline to get the bill to the president's desk. After hours of delay, the House voted 219-213 to advance the bill, scoring a key victory for Johnson. Lawmakers began voting at about 9:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday, but didn't wrap up until about 3:20 a.m. Thursday, as GOP leaders and the White House spoke with holdouts for hours to overcome their objections. "What are the Republicans waiting for??? What are you trying to prove??? MAGA IS NOT HAPPY, AND IT'S COSTING YOU VOTES!!!" Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly after midnight. Following the procedural vote, the House began debating the bill. Just before 5 a.m., House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries began addressing the chamber for a "magic minute," which allows the leader unlimited speaking time. Seven hours later, the New York Democrat is still addressing the chamber, pledging to "take his time" as he highlighted the Americans who he said would suffer because of the bill. "I rise today in strong opposition to Donald Trump's one, big ugly bill," Jeffries said as he began speaking. "This disgusting, abomination, the GOP tax scam, that guts Medicaid, rips food from the mouths of children, seniors and veterans, and rewards billionaires with massive tax breaks. Every single Democrat stands in strong opposition to this bill because we're standing up for the American people." Johnson is expected to speak after Jeffries concludes, followed by the final vote. House hardliners push back against Senate changes After the Senate approved the bill Tuesday, House GOP leaders had aimed to move ahead quickly on the signature legislation of Mr. Trump's second-term agenda, which includes ramped-up spending for border security, defense and energy production and extends trillions of dollars in tax cuts, partially offset by substantial cuts to health care and nutrition programs. But some House Republicans, who voted to pass an earlier version of the bill in May, were unhappy with the Senate's changes. Holdouts, including moderates and members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, met with Mr. Trump on Wednesday as the White House pressured House Republicans to vote for the bill. While some lawmakers described the meetings as productive, a number of conservatives said ahead of a rule vote Wednesday afternoon that they thought the procedural vote would fail. Johnson spent weeks pleading with his Senate counterparts not to make any major changes to the version of the bill that passed the lower chamber by a single vote in May. He said the Senate bill's changes "went a little further than many of us would've preferred." The Senate-passed bill includes steeper Medicaid cuts, a higher increase in the debt limit and changes to the House bill's green energy policies and the state and local tax deduction. Other controversial provisions that faced pushback in both chambers, including the sale of public lands in nearly a dozen states, a 10-year moratorium on states regulating artificial intelligence and an excise tax on the renewable energy industry, were stripped from the Senate bill before heading back to the House. Before the critical procedural vote ended, Johnson told reporters that Mr. Trump was "directly engaged" in conversations with skeptical members. "Members wanted to hear certain assurances from him about what's ahead, what the future will entail, and what we're going to do next, and all of that," Johnson said. "And he was very, very helpful in that process." In the wee hours on Thursday, five House Republicans had voted no on the rule vote, which was enough to tank the vote with a razor-thin GOP majority in the lower chamber, and eight possible holdouts had not voted. But the vote remained open as GOP leaders worked to shore up support, allowing lawmakers to change their votes from no to yes. Mr. Trump had taken to Truth Social as a handful of Republican holdouts didn't appear to be budging, declaring "FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE. RIDICULOUS!!!" Republican leaders ultimately won the support of about a dozen GOP opponents to the rule. And when the vote finally came to an end, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania was the sole Republican opposed. , and contributed to this report.
Wall Street Journal
26 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
Trump Wants to Expand Nuclear Power. It Won't Be Easy.
President Trump wants the U.S. power industry to go nuclear. His recent executive orders aim to quadruple nuclear-power generation in the next 25 years—a monumental target. For most of the past three decades, the industry has been managing ever-older assets instead of building new reactors. Developers are counting on a supply-chain revival and will have to prove they can deliver on time and on budget to drive interest in the sector.
USA Today
32 minutes ago
- USA Today
Jeffries uses ‘magic minute' as part of resistance plan against Trump tax bill
On the eve of America's 250th birthday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, is doing all he can to delay what looks to be the inevitable passage of President Donald Trump's sweeping tax and domestic policy bill. Jeffries, stymied with legislative options to block Trump's signature "big beautiful bill", has now taken his efforts to the court of public opinion, seizing the microphone on the House floor in a marathon speech. The Democratic leader started his protest speech shortly before 5 a.m. on July 3 as House Republicans continue to hammer out the proposal that would extend the 2017 tax cuts, boost military and border security spending and make an estimated $1 trillion cut to Medicaid and other programs meant to help the poor and working-class. "I rise today in strong opposition to Donald Trump's disgusting abomination… that guts Medicaid, rips food from the mouths of children, seniors and veterans, and rewards billionaires with massive tax breaks," Jeffries said. There are stacks of binders next to Jeffries at the podium, which indicates he plans to extend this marathon debate further but the Trump administration and congressional Republicans believe they have enough votes to cross the finish line. Here are some key things to think about in the final hours of the bill's debate. Jeffries using 'magic minute' is part of Democratic resistance plan As the party out of power in every part of the federal government, Democrats don't have many options in terms of stopping Trump's bulldozer in Washington. Instead of defeating the bill, Jeffries appears to be looking to rally national outrage over Trump's measure -- which 55% of registered voters oppose, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released June 26 -- by using a procedural tactic known as the "magic minute" that gives the House leaders unlimited speaking time on the floor. "People will die," Jeffries said. "I'm sad. I never thought that I'd be on the House floor saying this is a crime scene. And House Democrats want no part of it." The marathon speech is similar to the one Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., did in April that lasted for 25 hours and 5 minutes and broke the Senate record. It is unclear if Jeffries' talk-a-thon is getting the same level of attention online as Booker's speech did, but he's using to it pick apart the mega-bill and other parts of Trump's agenda including the focus on illegal immigration. Jeffries said at one point that Democrats support fixing the country's "broken" immigration system and booting those who commit crimes out of the U.S., but that his party opposes targeting law-abiding immigrant families, such as a 2-year-old girl born to two undocumented immigrants in Florida who was deported to Brazil by the administration earlier this year. 'Take my sweet time': How long will Jeffries speak? Democrats aren't saying how long Jeffries plans to speak, but from the binders and other materials joining the 54-year-old congressman at the podium he appears to be ready to take up as much time as he can physically muster. "I'm still here to take my sweet time," Jeffries said at one point. The House Democratic leader is about halfway to breaking the all-time record for the longest House floor speech set by former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who as the GOP leader in 2021 spoke against a Democratic spending measure. For much of this year Democrats and their progressive allies have been searching for different ways to regain voters' confidence and stop Trump's winning streak, whether by using congressional procedures or crashing press conferences held by administration officials. For most of the speech, Jeffries has been reading the testimonials of average Americans who will be impacted by spending cuts in what the president has dubbed his "one, big beautiful bill." But he has also been condemning other parts of the Trump agenda, including the massive effort to remove undocumented immigrants from the country. Vance scoffs at delay tactic as White House reschedules signing ceremony Republicans don't seem too deterred by Jeffries' protest speech, even as the White House is reportedly having to change plans on what day and time Trump will hold a ceremonial signing of the mega-bill. Vice President JD Vance took to X, formerly known as Twitter, suggesting the Democratic leader's speech is having the opposite effect. "GOP Congressman just texted me: 'I was undecided on the bill but then I watched Hakeem Jeffries performance and now I'm a firm yes.'" Other White House aides are mocking the marathon speech, too. Dan Scavino, a longtime Trump adviser and deputy chief of staff, posted a portion of Jeffries talking about stripping parts of the Affordable Care Act featuring the president playing an off-tune version of "My Heart Will Go On" on a flute. Contributing: Savannah Kuchar, Sudiksha Kochi and Joey Garrison
