Judge rules Trump admin can share illegal migrant Medicaid data with ICE

A federal judge ruled Monday that the Trump administration can share Medicaid information pertaining to illegal migrants with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers next month. 

The ruling comes after 22 Democratic states sued to stop the government from sharing the information in July, which was granted while the case played out. The liberal states can still appeal the ruling.

The order approved an agreement between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Homeland Security in July that allowed ICE officials to access the personal data of 79 million Medicaid enrollees, including home addresses, to track down the illegal migrants.

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria ruled that ICE officials can access six categories of “basic” personal information: Address, citizenship, immigration status, phone number, date of birth and Medicaid ID. 

“The sharing of such information is clearly authorized by law and the agencies have adequately explained their decisions,” Chhabria wrote in the seven-page order. “Beyond the basic information discussed above, the policies are totally unclear and do not appear to be the product of a coherent decision-making process."

The order, which is limited to migrants known to be in the country illegally, comes because seven blue states allow migrants to receive state funds through their respective Medicaid programs, but not federal ones. 

The seven blue states are: California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Oregon and Washington.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.