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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was recently granted access to Medicaid enrollee data, aiding officers tasked with fulfilling the Trump administration’s objective of tracking down and deporting illegal immigrants.
Medicaid, which uses taxpayer dollars to provide health insurance to low-income adults and children, has more than 71 million enrollees as of March 2025.
The information shared with ICE will include home addresses and ethnicities, according to a report from The Associated Press.
The agreement, brokered between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), was signed Monday, according to the report.
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Though the true number of illegal immigrants on Medicaid is unknown, about 1.4 million people currently on Medicaid do not meet citizenship and immigration status requirements for Medicaid enrollment, according to a document from the Congressional Budget Office.
DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital the initiative will ensure illegal immigrants do not receive taxpayer-funded health benefits.
“President Trump consistently promised to protect Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries,” McLaughlin wrote in a statement. “To keep that promise after Joe Biden flooded our country with tens of millions of illegal aliens CMS and DHS are exploring an initiative to ensure that illegal aliens are not receiving Medicaid benefits that are meant for law-abiding Americans.”
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The deal was signed weeks after California and 19 other states sued the Trump administration for transferring Medicaid data to the DHS.
“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) handed over a trove of individuals’ protected health data obtained from States, including California, Illinois, and Washington, to other federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS),” according to court documents. “Millions of individuals’ health information was transferred without their consent, and in violation of federal law.”
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The lawsuit claims the public’s sensitive health data can only be used for purposes that Congress has authorized, accusing the Trump administration of violating federal laws including the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
The Associated Press and Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
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