The Balance of Power

Sharing Health Information with ICE

Press Release:

Attor­ney Gen­er­al Tong Sues Trump Admin­is­tra­tion for Ille­gal­ly Shar­ing Per­son­al Health Data with ICE

Preceding Event:

Accord­ing to the press release from July 1, 2025, “On June 13, 2025, states learned through news reports that HHS has trans­ferred en masse their state’s Med­ic­aid data files, con­tain­ing per­son­al health records rep­re­sent­ing mil­lions of indi­vid­u­als, to DHS. Reports indi­cate that the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment plans to cre­ate a sweep­ing data­base for ‘mass depor­ta­tions’ and oth­er large-scale immi­gra­tion enforce­ment pur­pos­es.” The admin­is­tra­tion claims the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty needs the data to ensure that those receiv­ing Med­ic­aid ser­vices are “deserv­ing” and “law­ful­ly enti­tled to receive” them.

General Overview:

Accord­ing to the press release, “Attor­ney Gen­er­al William Tong today joined a mul­ti­state coali­tion fil­ing a law­suit chal­leng­ing the U.S. Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices’ (HHS) deci­sion to pro­vide unfet­tered access to indi­vid­ual per­son­al health data to the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty (DHS), which hous­es Immi­gra­tion and Cus­toms Enforce­ment.”

Connecticut Nexus:

Near­ly 1 mil­lion peo­ple in Con­necti­cut are cov­ered by Med­ic­aid insur­ance.

Date of filing:

July 1, 2025

Case #:

3:25-cv-05536

Case title:

State of Cal­i­for­nia et al v. U.S. Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices et al

Plaintiffs: 20 states

Defendants:

Court:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

Status as of Dec. 1, 2025:

OPEN
Last fil­ing: Nov. 11, 2025

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