According to an agreement obtained by the Associated Press, immigrants and customs enforcement officers will have access to the personal data of 79 million Medicaid subscribers, including domestic addresses and ethnicities, to track immigrants who do not legally live in the United States.
The information will give ICE staff the ability to find “alien locations” across the country, the agreement signed Monday between the Centers for Medicare and the Medicaid Services and the Department of Homeland Security said. The contract is not publicly disclosed.
Extraordinary disclosure of millions of such personal health data to deportation officials is the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s immigrant crackdown, repeatedly testing legal boundaries to arrest 3,000 people every day.
Lawmakers and some CMS officials are challenging the legality of deportation officials’ access to Medicaid registration data in some states. Officials with Health and Human Service said the move was the first reported move last month, aimed at inappropriately rooting people enrolled in the program.
However, the latest data sharing agreements reveal how ICE officials intend to carry out their health data.
“ICE uses CMS data to enable ICE to receive identity and location information about the aliens identified in ICE,” the contract states.
Such actions can spread widely
Such disclosures can raise widespread alarms among those seeking emergency medical assistance for themselves and for their children, even if they are not acting. Other efforts to crack down on illegal immigration have made schools, churches, courts and other everyday places feel unsafe even to American citizens who fear immigration or being caught up in assaults.
HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon did not handle the latest contract. However, it is unclear whether Homeland Security is still accessing information. Tricia McLaughlin, the department’s assistant secretary, said the two agencies have made an email statement saying they are “exploring initiatives to prevent illegal foreigners from receiving Medicaid benefits targeted at law-abiding Americans.”
The database will reveal names, addresses, date of birth, ethnic and racial information, as well as names, addresses, date of birth, ethnic and racial information for all Medicaid-registered people to Ice staff. State and federal funding programs offer healthcare coverage programs for the poorest people, including millions of children.
This agreement does not allow ICE personnel to download data. Instead, they will be allowed to access for a limited period of time Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm and from September 9th.
“They are trying to turn us into immigration agents,” CMS officials said they had no permission to speak to the media and insisted on anonymity.
Immigrants who do not legally live in the United States, and those who are legally presented, are not permitted to register for a Medicaid program that offers almost free coverage for medical services. Medicaid is a jointly funded program between the state and the federal government.
However, federal law requires that all states provide emergency Medicaid. This is temporary compensation that pays everyone, including non-US citizens, only emergency room life-saving services. Emergency Medicaid is often used by immigrants, including those who are legally present and those who are not.
Hannah Kucchi, a former adviser to CMS during the Biden administration, said many people will sign up for Emergency Medicaid at the most hopeless moments.
“It is not conceivable that CMS would violate the trust of Medicaid subscribers like this,” Kutch said. She said that personally identifiable information for the registrant has not been historically shared outside of government agencies for the purposes of law enforcement to investigate waste, fraud or abuse in the program.
Ice Agents detained up to 10 men outside the Immigration Court in Sterling, Virginia today. As ice agents on the scene did not answer questions about the arrest, an activist video shows the agent grabbing one member of the organization and knocking on the phone from the hands of another member. Reported by Paul Wagner of News4. Editor’s Notes (6/12 7am): Previous report in this article stated that as many as 11 men were taken into custody by ICE. Ice has revealed that 10 men have been detained in Sterling, Virginia.
The Trump Team has actively pursued information
Last month, Trump officials requested federal health agency staff to release personally identifiable information about millions of Medicaid enrollees from seven states that allow non-Americans to register in the full Medicaid program.
The state has launched these programs during the Biden administration and said it will not charge the federal government to cover the health costs of those migrants. All states in California, New York, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, Minnesota and Colorado have Democratic governors.
Data sharing with DHS officials has prompted widespread backlash from lawmakers and governors. 20 states have since sued the movement, claiming it is violating federal health privacy laws.
CMS officials have fought previously but have not stopped data sharing, which is now at the heart of the lawsuit. On Monday, CMS officials were again debating whether DHS access should be provided, citing concerns about the ongoing litigation.
In an email chain obtained by the AP called “Hold DHS Access – Emergency,” CMS Chief Legal Officer Rujul H. Desai said first they should ask the Department of Justice to directly appeal to the “suspend” of information sharing. In response the next day, HHS lawyer Lena Amanti Yueh said the Department of Justice was “pleased that CMS is used to providing DHS access.”
Dozens of members of Congress, including California’s Democratic senators, sent letters to DHS and HHS officials last month to DHS and HHS officials demanding that information sharing be stopped.
“The massive transfer of personal data of millions of Medicaid recipients must warn all Americans. This massive violation of this privacy law must be stopped immediately,” Schiff said in response to an explanation of the AP’s new expansion agreement. “It only harms families across the country and forces more citizens to dump access to lifesaving in healthcare.”
The new agreement reveals that DHS will use the data to identify illegal people abroad. However, HHS officials have repeatedly maintained that it is primarily used as a cost-saving measure to investigate whether non-Americans have inappropriate access to Medicaid benefits.
“HHS is fully compliant with all laws to ensure that Medicaid benefits are reserved to individuals entitled to them,” Nixon said in a statement responding to the lawsuit last month.
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