California leads state lawsuit against White House sharing health data amid ICE raids
California’s attorney general said the data seizure created “a culture of fear” that will have a “chilling effect” on health care access.
The lawsuit over Medicaid data comes amid a spike in Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests as agents execute raids at schools, immigration courts and hardware stores. | Alex Brandon/AP
SACRAMENTO, California — California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 19 other state attorneys general sued the Trump administration Tuesday for sharing personal information about people who receive public health insurance with immigration officials.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday morning in the Northern District of California, argues the Trump administration’s mass transfer of Medicaid data to the Department of Homeland Security illegally exposed confidential health information, including immigration status. The attorneys general are seeking to block Washington from using the information for immigration enforcement purposes or acquiring further Medicaid data.
The case adds to the dozens of legal challenges Bonta’s office has launched or joined against the Trump administration as the top California lawyer emerges as a leading face of blue state resistance to the president. It also comes after a fierce standoff between California and the White House over Los Angeles protests sparked by immigration raids, which prompted President Donald Trump to deploy the National Guard and Marines to the state against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wishes.
Bonta said the data seizure created “a culture of fear” that will have a “chilling effect” on health care access, particularly for immigrants and people seeking reproductive or gender-affirming care.
“This isn’t about cutting waste or going after fraud,” Bonta told reporters at a virtual press conference Tuesday. “This is about going after vulnerable people who entrusted the state and the federal government to help them access health care, a basic human right.”
The Trump administration has argued the data-sharing maneuver was legal and will ensure federally-funded Medicaid benefits are reserved for U.S. citizens. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services doubled down on that point Tuesday.
Medicaid officials are “aggressively cracking down on states that may be misusing federal Medicaid funds to subsidize care for illegal immigrants – that includes California,” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in an email to POLITICO. “This oversight effort – supported by lawful interagency data sharing with DHS – is focused on identifying waste, fraud, and systemic abuse.”
Federal funds cannot be used to pay for most care of undocumented immigrants provided in California, and the state has insisted it is not misusing federal funds amid the Trump administration’s scrutiny.
The unprecedented data grab, first reported by The Associated Press last month, targeted residents of California, Illinois, Washington state and Washington, D.C., all of which offer public health insurance benefits for undocumented immigrants. It sparked outrage from Newsom, Democratic leaders from other states and data privacy advocates, who blasted the action as invasive and potentially illegal.
Approximately 78 million people nationwide are enrolled in Medicaid, according to federal data. Around 1.7 million undocumented immigrants in California are enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state’s implementation of Medicaid, which has been available to everyone in the state regardless of immigration status since 2024.
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 California in Tuesday’s lawsuit, according to Bonta’s office.
The attorneys general allege the Trump administration’s data transfer violates the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, better known as HIPAA, which bars providers from sharing protected health information without patient consent. They further claimed the data transfer runs afoul of privacy protections in four other federal laws as well as the U.S. Constitution’s spending clause.
Bonta said it’s the latest example of Trump’s “total disregard for the law.”
“We’re taking the president to court again for the 28th time in 23 weeks — more than once a week — because that’s how often he’s breaking the law,” Bonta said.
The lawsuit over Medicaid data comes as Immigration and Customs Enforcement hunts for troves of government data to aid in Trump’s pledge of mass deportations. Immigration officials have previously sought information about SNAP food aid recipients and taxpayer data from the IRS to identify undocumented immigrants.
It also comes amid a spike in ICE arrests as agents execute raids at schools, immigration courts and hardware stores. Trump has praised the agency for cracking down on illegal immigration, while Democrats have repudiated ICE’s efforts as inhumane and blasted the agency for arresting people with no preexisting criminal record.
“We need to call this what it really is: the latest salvo in the president’s anti-immigrant campaign, an attack on public health and a breach of public trust that will have detrimental consequences for years to come,” Bonta said Tuesday.