A federal judge has temporarily barred the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from using Medicaid patient data from Washington and 19 other states to aid in immigration enforcement, ruling that federal agencies failed to follow proper procedures before changing data-sharing policies.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria issued the preliminary injunction this week in a multistate lawsuit filed in Northern California. The order also blocks the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), from providing Medicaid records to DHS for deportation purposes.
In his Tuesday decision, Chhabria noted that “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.” The injunction will stay in place until the agencies either complete a legally compliant decision-making process or until the case concludes.
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown called the ruling a win for privacy, stating that protecting personal health information is essential and that “everyone should be able to seek medical care without fear of what the federal government may do with that information.”
Washington joined the lawsuit in July after learning that Medicaid data from multiple states, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, claims details, and immigration status, had been shared with federal immigration officials. Immigrant advocates, civil rights groups, and state leaders condemned the practice, warning that it risked weaponizing sensitive medical data against patients.
Local health clinics in the Seattle area even discussed security changes to better safeguard patient privacy in case of unexpected visits from immigration authorities.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, Washington’s Apple Health program serves over 1.9 million residents, including about 49,000 whose immigration status disqualifies them from some federally funded programs. Another 12,000 undocumented, low-income residents are enrolled in Apple Health Expansion, which provides state-funded primary care, emergency visits, dental services, and more. Except for emergency care, which is federally reimbursed, all costs are covered by state taxpayers.
Patients in Apple Health Expansion were promised their personal data would remain confidential, said the Washington State Health Care Authority, which runs the Medicaid program. While states have long been required to share Medicaid data with CMS to receive federal funding, health officials said they were unaware that the information could be passed to non-health agencies.
Chhabria’s ruling also pointed out that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has had a public policy for over a decade against using Medicaid records for deportation purposes. “It was incumbent upon the agencies to carry out a reasoned decision-making process before changing them,” Chhabria wrote, adding that the evidence “strongly suggests that no such process occurred.”
While the judge denied a request for additional rulemaking requirements on interagency data-sharing changes, Washington’s Attorney General stressed that the administration’s actions have already created “fear and confusion,” discouraging eligible noncitizens and their families from enrolling in Medicaid, a trend that could force states and safety net hospitals to absorb the cost of emergency care.
The lawsuit is backed by attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
