Through the Static

By Hannah Saunders

In July, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) obtained Medicaid data from all states—  the health and personal information, including home addresses, of millions of people. Federal Judge Vince Chhabria authorized a preliminary injunction order on August 12 preventing DHS from using Medicaid data of 20 states from being used for immigration enforcement. 

“Protecting people’s private health information is vitally important,” Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said. “And everyone should be able to seek medical care without fear of what the federal government may do with that information.”

More than 1.9 million Washingtonians are Medicaid (“Apple Health”) recipients, and according to Brown’s office, approximately 49,000 have an immigration status that makes them ineligible for other federally-funded programs. 

California led the statewide coalition charge of suing the Trump regime for its mass transfer of Medicaid data for its brutal activities. According to Judge Chhabria’s injunction order, ICE (which falls under DHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have not shared data for immigration enforcement activities since at least 2013. 

Back in June, news outlets reported how the Departmenf of Health and Human Services (HHS) transferred state Medicaid data files for millions of people to DHS, as it was ramping up its enforcement efforts. The order also prevents HHS from sharing Medicaid data with DHS, citing the 20-state coalition’s claim of violations of the Administrative Procedure Act. 

“And in July 2025, CMS and ICE entered into a formal data-sharing agreement. It appears that ICE is primarily focused on obtaining current address information for people who are in the country unlawfully. But CMS appears to have granted ICE unfettered access to all information about all Medicaid patients in the United Sates, whether citizens or noncitizens,” according to the injunction order.

It also noted how there’s no evidence that involved agencies contemplated limiting the amount of data ICE could access, like “allowing ICE to only access address information for people in the country illegally, rather than all private medical information about all Medicaid patients through the country,” and without proper communication via federal and state Medicaid channels. 

The preliminary injunction order will stay in effect until either HHS or DHS create a plan that complies with the Act or until litigation concludes. Other states involved in the coalition include Arizona Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai’i, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont.