The Trump administration will start sharing the personal information of nearly 79 million Medicaid enrollees, including home addresses and ethnicities, with federal immigration authorities as the president seeks to ramp up deportations.
In a statement to NBC News on Thursday, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin described the latest data-sharing agreement between her agency and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as "an initiative" to ensure undocumented immigrants don't access Medicaid benefits.
The Associated Press first reported the new agreement, which hasn't been made public yet.
Immigrants who lack legal status and some lawfully present immigrants are already barred from enrolling in Medicaid, a federal health services program that provides nearly free coverage to beneficiaries. Yet federal law requires all states to offer emergency Medicaid, temporary coverage that pays only for lifesaving services in emergency rooms to anyone regardless of immigration status.
Medicaid is a jointly funded program between states and the federal government.
Under the agreement, officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement will use Medicaid data to get identity and location information of people ICE believes are in the country unlawfully, the AP reported.
ICE will have access to a database that includes the names, addresses, birth dates, ethnic and racial information, as well as Social Security numbers for all people enrolled in Medicaid, the AP reported. The agreement allows ICE to review the database only from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday until Sept. 9. It isn't allowed to download the data.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the state is moving quickly to obtain a court order to block the sharing of data for immigration enforcement.
“It is devastating to think that individuals may not seek essential medical care because they are afraid that if they do so, they may be targeted by this administration,” the AG said in a statement. “The president’s efforts to pull personal, private, and unrelated health data to create a mass deportation machine cannot be allowed to continue.”
Earlier this month, California was among 19 states, including New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Oregon, to sue the Trump administration over its decision to share personal health data with ICE.
A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 7, according to Bonta's office.
