Federal judge OKs sharing NY immigrants’ Medicaid data with ICE

• A federal judge in California, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, has ruled that the Trump administration can resume sharing biographical, location, and contact data about unauthorized immigrants receiving public health insurance benefits with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), starting in January, which is a victory for the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration and a setback for California, New York, and 18 other Democrat-led states that sued to block the administration from using Medicaid data for immigration enforcement purposes.
• The ruling could affect up to hundreds of thousands of immigrants without permanent legal status living in New York state, where about 7 million people are enrolled in Medicaid, and approximately 465,000 noncitizens are enrolled in emergency Medicaid, including those whose citizenship status renders them ineligible for other Medicaid programs.
• According to the ruling, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is allowed to share with ICE the citizenship and immigration status, address, phone number, date of birth, and Medicaid ID of immigrants living unlawfully in the United States, but is barred from sharing personal health records and other potentially sensitive medical information.
• The decision has been met with criticism from advocates who argue that it restricts privacy rights and will further deter immigrants from signing up for government programs and seeking health care, including for issues such as infectious diseases, with Bill Hammond, senior health policy fellow at the Empire Center, stating that the ruling is a deterrent for non-citizens to get involved in any kind of government program, including Medicaid.
• The ruling does not officially define who qualifies as an “unlawfully present” immigrant whose data may be shared, and it makes no mention of the specific circumstances of asylum-seekers, recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or other forms of deportation parole, leaving uncertainty about the impact on these groups.
• The Trump administration has defended the decision, with Deputy Chief of Staff and Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller stating that the ruling is “long overdue,” and Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin calling it “a victory for the rule of law and American taxpayers,” while a spokesperson for the New York state Department of Health said the ruling is “under review” and it is too early to tell if there will be any impact on New Yorkers.

Sources

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