Judge limits ICE reach for immigrant data

A federal judge clarified his December injunction greenlighting HHS to share basic biographical, location and contact information of individuals who are not in the country legally with ICE.SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — A federal judge Thursday narrowed the scope of whose Medicaid information the Department of Health and Human Services can share with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.At issue is an injunction issued this past December allowing the Trump administration to move forward with a new ICE policy permitting the agency to obtain basic information of certain Medicaid patients for immigration enforcement purposes.However, information was limited to the citizenship and immigration status, address, phone number, date of birth and Medicaid ID of individuals who are not in the country lawfully, and the agencies were blocked from sharing any information beyond the specified categories.The states suing over the policy and the Department of Justice had opposing views of which groups of people fell under the category of ‘in the country lawfully,’ so they asked U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria to clarify who could have their information shared with ICE under the injunction.The states initially proposed only allowing HHS to share the health data of those under a final removal order. But Chhabria determined there are other groups of people, such as those who are going through removal proceedings, whose information ICE is allowed to access and use for immigration enforcement purposes.Now the states are seeking to protect the health data of individuals in the country legally, regardless of temporary status. That list includes anyone with a valid, nonexpired visa, those with Temporary Protected Status or Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and victims of human trafficking.“If the only criterion is who the Department of Homeland Security can take any action against, that is a huge group of people. It is not reasonable to say all of those people can have their Medicaid data shared,” California Department of Justice attorney Anna Rich said.On the other side, DOJ attorney Christian Dibblee argued the statutory authorities that give ICE the ability to obtain Medicaid data on individuals are extremely broad, insisting HHS should be able to share the data of anyone not in the country permanently.Chabbaria was skeptical of why other groups of people, including valid, nonexpired visa holders such as those on student or work visas, should not be included with citizens and lawful permanent residents.“I don’t understand the magic of permanently in that context,” he said. “They are here lawfully. Yes, you can potentially take immigration enforcement against some of those people, but they are here lawfully. I think we need to go category by category,” the Barack Obama appointee asked.The judge stopped short of issuing a formal ruling, but ultimately concluded that valid, nonexpired visa holders should not have their health data shared with ICE while indicating more skepticism about DACA recipients and TPS holders. He further rejected the government’s idea that individuals must be in the country permanently to be considered under the injunction.Chhabria directed the parties to come up with an agreement consistent with his guidance that those here lawfully, but temporarily, should be grouped with citizens and lawful permanent residents under the injunction.Representatives for both parties did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The states sued the Trump administration in July 2025, asking the court to block enforcement of an ICE policy memo that rescinded a 2019 rule barring the use of healthcare information for immigration enforcement.The new policy allowed ICE to request and use data from the Department of Health and Human Services for “any and all law enforcement activities that ICE is authorized to pursue as a matter of federal law.”This past August, Chhabria granted the plaintiff states’ initial request for a preliminary injunction, temporarily blocking DHS from using Medicaid data obtained from the plaintiff states for immigration enforcement purposes, including data they already acquired.The judge issued a further injunction in December, ruling the feds have broad statutory authority to obtain data from other agencies to “pursue legitimate law enforcement objectives, like immigration enforcement,” and that Congress requires agencies to comply with legitimate data requests from DHS.However, Chhabria sided with the states regarding data beyond basic information, echoing prior concerns over what additional information could be requested on a “case-by-case basis,” whether data about citizens or lawful permanent residents could be sought and whether the policies would allow HHS to share sensitive medical information about Medicaid patients with DHS.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads