HHS Sent 21 States' Medicaid Data to ICE by Mistake, DOJ Says
Updated
Updated · POLITICO · Jul 9
HHS Sent 21 States' Medicaid Data to ICE by Mistake, DOJ Says
2 articles · Updated · POLITICO · Jul 9
Summary
A DOJ court filing said HHS inadvertently sent ICE a Medicaid data file covering states protected by a 2025 injunction, exposing a new breach in the fight over using health records for immigration enforcement.
The filing said the error happened while HHS was transmitting Medicaid data on immigrants from non-plaintiff states with final removal orders; ICE never ingested the mistaken file and did not use it in enforcement.
The disclosure surfaced in litigation brought by 21 states and the District of Columbia, which sued in June 2025 after alleging HHS secretly shared Medicaid information with DHS.
A federal judge had already barred the government in August 2025 from using Medicaid data obtained from those states for immigration enforcement, even as CMS later formalized some data-sharing with DHS and ICE on request.