Trump administration grants ICE access to Medicaid recipients’ personal data

The Trump administration announced it would hand over the personal data of Medicaid recipients to look for immigrants who may be living in the U.S. illegally. According to an agreement obtained by The Associated Press, ICE will receive the personal data of 79 million people, including home addresses and ethnicities. 

The White House said the information would enable ICE to locate unauthorized immigrants who may be across the country. The AP reported the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Homeland Security signed the agreement on Monday, July 14.

“ICE will use the CMS data to allow ICE to receive identity and location information on aliens identified by ICE,” the agreement states.

The administration has not announced the agreement to the public.

Growing immigration crackdown

The agreement marks the latest escalation of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. President Donald Trump previously said he wanted ICE to arrest 3,000 people daily, something the New York Post reported was “killing morale.” 

Some officials at the CMS have pushed back at the legality of allowing ICE officials access to the Medicaid enrollee data, according to the AP. Last month, Health and Human Services officials claimed this would allow the administration to root out people enrolled in the program improperly. 

According to AP, the database access will allow ICE to view the names, addresses, birth dates, ethnic and racial information, and Social Security numbers of recipients. The agreement won’t allow ICE agents to download the data but will permit them to view it on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Some CMS officials the AP spoke with expressed concern about the implications of this agreement. 

“They are trying to turn us into immigration agents,” an official who did not have permission to speak told the AP.

HHS officials previously said this access would be primarily used as a cost saving measure as they investigate if people were improperly accessing Medicaid benefits.