OAKLAND<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 California Attorney General Rob Bonta today, leading a multistate coalition, filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services\u2019\u00a0(HHS)\u00a0decision to provide unfettered access to individual personal health data to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which houses\u00a0Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In the seven decades since Congress enacted the Medicaid Act to provide medical assistance to vulnerable populations, federal law, policy, and practice has been clear: the personal healthcare data collected about beneficiaries of the program is confidential, to be shared only in certain narrow circumstances that benefit public health and the integrity of the Medicaid program itself. In today\u2019s lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that the mass\u00a0transfer of this data violates the law and ask the court to block any new transfer or use of this data for immigration enforcement purposes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Trump Administration has upended longstanding privacy protections with its decision to illegally share sensitive, personal health data with ICE. In doing so, it has created a culture of fear that will lead to fewer people seeking vital emergency medical care,\u201d\u00a0said Attorney General Bonta<\/b>. \u201cI\u2019m sickened by this latest salvo in the President\u2019s anti-immigrant campaign. We\u2019re headed to court to prevent any further sharing of Medicaid data \u2014 and to ensure any of the data that\u2019s already been shared is not used for immigration enforcement purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Created in 1965, Medicaid is an essential source of health insurance for lower-income individuals and particular underserved population groups, including children, pregnant women, individuals with disabilities, and seniors. The Medicaid program allows each participating state to develop and administer its own unique health plans; states must meet threshold federal statutory criteria, but they can tailor their plans\u2019 eligibility standards and coverage options to residents\u2019 needs. As of January 2025, 78.4 million people were enrolled in Medicaid and the Children\u2019s Health Insurance Program\u00a0(CHIP)\u00a0nationwide. \u00a0<\/p>\n
California\u2019s Medi-Cal program provides healthcare coverage for one out of every three Californians, including more than two million noncitizens. Noncitizens include green card holders, refugees, individuals who hold temporary protected status, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival recipients, and others.\u00a0Not all noncitizens are eligible for federally funded Medi-Cal services, and so\u00a0California uses\u00a0state-only funds to provide a version of the Medi-Cal program to all eligible state residents, regardless of their immigration status.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A certain amount of personal data is routinely exchanged between the states and the federal government for purposes of administering Medicaid, including verifying eligibility for federal funding. Historically, DHS has acknowledged that the Medicaid Act and other federal healthcare authorities foreclose the use of Medicaid personal information for immigration enforcement purposes. Yet now, the federal government appears to have\u00a0\u2014 without formal acknowledgment \u2014\u00a0adopted a new policy that allows for the wholesale disclosure and use of state residents\u2019 personal Medicaid data for purposes unrelated to Medicaid program administration. On June 13, 2025, California and other states learned through news reports that HHS has transferred\u00a0en masse\u00a0their state\u2019s Medicaid data files, containing personal health records representing millions of individuals, to DHS. Reports indicate that the federal government\u00a0plans to create a sweeping database for \u201cmass deportations\u201d and other large-scale immigration enforcement purposes.<\/p>\n
The federal government claims it gave this data to DHS\u00a0\u201cto ensure that Medicaid benefits are reserved for individuals who are lawfully entitled to receive them.\u201d\u00a0But it is Congress that extended coverage and federal funds for emergency Medicaid to all individuals residing in the United States,\u00a0regardless of immigration status. The states have and will continue to cooperate with federal oversight activities to ensure that the federal government pays only for those Medicaid services that are legally authorized. \u00a0<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition highlight that the Trump Administration\u2019s illegal actions are creating fear and confusion that will lead noncitizens and their family members to disenroll, or refuse to enroll, in emergency Medicaid for which they are otherwise eligible, leaving states and their safety net hospitals to foot the bill for federally mandated emergency healthcare services.\u00a0 They may not get the emergency health services they need and will suffer negative health consequences \u2014 and even death \u2014 as a result. The coalition asks that the court find the Trump Administration\u2019s actions arbitrary and capricious and rulemaking without proper procedure\u00a0in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, contrary to the Social Security Act,\u00a0Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act<\/a>\u00a0(HIPAA), Federal Information Security Modernization Act, and Privacy Act, and in violation of the Spending Clause. They ask the court to enjoin HHS from transferring personally identifiable Medicaid data to DHS or any other federal agency and DHS from using this data to conduct immigration enforcement. \u00a0<\/p>\n Attorney General Bonta leads the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washinton in filing the lawsuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n