Medicaid is giving ICE access to data of 79M enrollees, including ethnicity

This story originally appeared in Truthout on July 17, 2025. It is shared here with permission.

The Trump administration is reportedly handing the personal information of all 79 million Medicaid enrollees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), giving vast power to the rogue agency as it ravages communities across the U.S.

The data includes names, addresses, ethnicity and race, birth dates, and Social Security numbers of Medicaid enrollees, per an agreement signed between Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Homeland Security. The agreement was reported by the Associated Press.

The deal stipulates that ICE will not be able to download the data, and will only be allowed to access it between 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday, through September 9. However, the Trump administration has previously faced lawsuits from states over the sharing of Medicaid data with ICE, saying that the laws providing for the protection of such data are clear cut.

The agreement says that the information sharing is meant to help ICE track down “the location of aliens” in the U.S. The Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that the agreement exists for the purpose of “exploring an initiative to ensure that illegal aliens are not receiving Medicaid benefits that are meant for law-abiding Americans.”

Crucially, undocumented immigrants are not allowed to enroll in Medicaid, and other immigrants in the U.S. have to meet certain qualifications in order to be eligible. Conservatives have long made claims of widespread fraud within Medicaid and other welfare programs, but there is no evidence to back them up.

Further, there is no reason to give ICE access to the data to investigate fraud, as there are already Medicaid fraud investigators in every state and territory tasked with doing just that.

But, using fraud and unauthorized immigration as excuses, Trump administration officials have worked relentlessly to expand the police state — replacing public services meant to help working class Americans with law enforcement officers who enjoy anonymity and impunity.

Republicans have used lies about fraud and immigration to help push their marquee budget bill, which will force millions of Americans off of Medicaid coverage when the bill’s cuts take effect in 2027. In other words, some Medicaid recipients may be targeted by the Trump administration as a result of the data-sharing agreement and later kicked off of their life-saving benefits anyway.

At the same time, fear over being racially profiled or surveilled by the data-sharing agreement may prevent people from enrolling in Medicaid to begin with.

By targeting Medicaid, the Trump administration is targeting some of the poorest Americans in the U.S. Medicaid provides health care coverage for households making around or under the poverty level, as well as people unable to work like those with certain disabilities.

“It’s unthinkable that CMS would violate the trust of Medicaid enrollees in this way,” said Hannah Katch, a former CMS adviser, to the Associated Press.