EL PASO, TEXAS — The Associated Press reported Thursday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has begun sharing with immigration officials the personal information – including ethnicity – of all 79 million people who get health care through Medicaid. This appears to be an expansion of a more limited data sharing initiative reported by AP in June. AP reported that the initial memo, authored by Medicaid Deputy Director Sara Vitolo, warns that such data sharing is barred by “multiple federal statutory and regulatory authorities.”
Importantly, AP reports today that the broader initiative will share the data of all people covered by Medicaid – including people who are U.S. citizens and lawfully present immigrants. News accounts confirm that the Trump administration has wrongly deported U.S. citizens and lawfully present immigrants, and Trump has indicated an interest in deporting U.S. citizens who have committed crimes and revoking the citizenship of naturalized citizens, or even revoking the citizenship of people who he just doesn’t like. And a federal judge recently ruled that the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts targeted people based on their race.
Research confirms that immigration concerns have a “chilling effect” on immigrant families’ willingness to seek help or care through programs for which they qualify. Immigrant families typically include people who are U.S. citizens, people who are undocumented, and lawfully present immigrants. As a result, the impact of this deterrent effect could compromise health care access for millions of U.S. citizens and lawfully present immigrants in the 27% of the U.S. population who live in immigrant families.
Reacting to the AP article, the Protecting Immigrant Families coalition (PIF) released the following statement from its director, Adriana Cadena.
“This was a dangerous idea when it was only a few million people – at this scale, it’s disastrous. They’re sharing the personal information of a quarter of the U.S. population with an agency that’s got a track record of racial profiling and wrongful arrests. Only swift and aggressive congressional oversight can end this appalling abuse of the law and the public trust.”
