California is leading a coalition of 19 other states in a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the transfer of Medicaid data to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Filed in the Northern District of California, the lawsuit marks the 28th time in 23 weeks that California has taken the Trump administration to court. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the latest challenge targets what the states call a violation of federal privacy laws.
The complaint alleges that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) unlawfully shared millions of individuals’ protected health information—including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, immigration status, and claims data—with DHS without consent.
Attorneys general from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington joined the suit.
The states say the data-sharing will create fear and confusion, causing non-citizens and their families to disenroll or avoid enrolling in emergency Medicaid, forcing states and safety-net hospitals to absorb the cost of care Congress intended the federal government to cover. The lawsuit also claims the states aim to prevent their Medicaid programs from being used to support what they describe as an “anti-immigrant crusade.”
