Judge orders RFK Jr.'s health department to stop sharing Medicaid data
with deportation officials
[August 15, 2025]
By AMANDA SEITZ and KIMBERLY KINDY
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge ordered the nation's health department
to stop giving deportation officials access to the personal information
— including home addresses — of all 79 million Medicaid enrollees.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services first handed over the
personal data on millions of Medicaid enrollees in a handful of states
in June. After an Associated Press report identified the new policy, 20
states filed a lawsuit to stop its implementation.
In July, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services entered into a
new agreement that gave the Department of Homeland Security daily access
to view the personal data — including Social Security numbers and home
address — of all the nation's 79 million Medicaid enrollees. Neither
agreement was announced publicly.
The extraordinary disclosure of such personal health data to deportation
officials in the Trump administration’s far-reaching immigration
crackdown immediately prompted the lawsuit over privacy concerns.
The Medicaid data sharing is part of a broader effort by the Trump
administration to provide DHS with more data on migrants. In May, for
example, a federal judge refused to block the Internal Revenue Service
from sharing immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs
Enforcement to help agents locate and detain people living without legal
status in the U.S.
The order, issued by federal Judge Vince Chhabria in California,
temporarily halts the health department from sharing personal data of
enrollees in those 20 states, which include California, Arizona,
Washington and New York.
“Using CMS data for immigration enforcement threatens to significantly
disrupt the operation of Medicaid—a program that Congress has deemed
critical for the provision of health coverage to the nation’s most
vulnerable residents,” Chhabria wrote in his decision, issued on
Tuesday.
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 Chhabria, an appointee of President
Barack Obama, said that the order will remain in effect until the
health department outlines “reasoned decisionmaking” for its new
policy of sharing data with deportation officials.
A spokesperson for the federal health department declined to
directly answer whether the agency would stop sharing its data with
DHS. HHS has maintained that its agreement with DHS is legal.
Immigrants who are not living in the U.S. legally, as well as some
lawfully present immigrants, are not allowed to enroll in the
Medicaid program that provides nearly free coverage for health
services. But federal law requires all states to offer emergency
Medicaid, a temporary coverage that pays only for lifesaving
services in emergency rooms to anyone, including non-U.S. citizens.
Medicaid is a jointly funded program between states and the federal
government.
Immigration advocates have said the disclosure of personal data
could cause alarm among people seeking emergency medical help for
themselves or their children. Other efforts to crack down on illegal
immigration have made schools, churches, courthouses and other
everyday places feel perilous to immigrants and even U.S. citizens
who fear getting caught up in a raid.
“Protecting people’s private health information is vitally
important,” Washington state's Attorney General Nick Brown said in a
statement. “And everyone should be able to seek medical care without
fear of what the federal government may do with that information.”
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