Washington (AP). Immigration and customs enforcement officers will be given the opportunity to obtain personal data of 79 million Nation Medicaid students, including home addresses and ethnic groups to track immigrants who may not live legally in the US under the Associated Press agreement.
This information will give ICE officers the opportunity to find a “foreign seat” across the country, saying that the agreement between Medicare and Medicaid Services and Homeland Security Department on Monday. The agreement was not publicly announced.
An extraordinary disclosure of millions of such personal health deportation to officials is the last escalation of the Trump administration immigration, which has repeatedly tried the legal boundaries, to arrest 3,000 people daily.
Legislators and some CMS officials have challenged the legality of the deportation officers to the lawfulness of some states Medicaid. This is a step that first reported the AP last month that health and human service officials said the aim was to take root into a program that included inadequately.
However, the latest data sharing agreement clearly shows what ICE officials intend to do with health data.
“ICE will benefit CMS data so that ICE could receive identity and local information about aliens identified ICE,” the agreement said.
Such an action can vibrate widely
Such a disclosure, even if not, can be broadly anxious among people looking for ambulance for themselves or their children. Other efforts to deal with illegal immigration forced schools, churches, courts and other everyday places to feel dangerous for immigrants and even US citizens who are afraid to engage in a raid.
HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon would not respond to the latest agreement. However, it is unclear whether the security of the homeland has yet to reach this information. Assistant Secretary of the Department Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that both agencies are being investigated by the initiative to ensure that illegal foreigners do not receive Medicaid benefits for the Americans complying with laws. “
The database will reveal names, addresses, birth dates, ethnic and racial information, as well as social security numbers included in Medicaid. The state and federal funded program provides a healthcare coverage program to the poorest, including millions of children.
The agreement prevents ICE officers from downloading the data. Instead, they will be allowed to access it for a limited period of 9am to 5pm, Monday – Friday to September 9.
“They are trying to turn us into immigration agents,” the CMS official said they had no permission to talk to the media and demanded anonymity.
Immigrants who do not live legally in the US, as well as some legitimately involved immigrants, are not allowed to enter the Medicaid program, which provides almost free health care provision. Medicaid is a jointly funded program of the States and Federal Government.
However, federal laws require all states to offer urgent Medicaid, a time-consumed, which only pays for rescue services in emergency departments, including non-US citizens. Emergency medicine Medicaid is often used by immigrants, including those who are legally involved and those who are not.
Many people sign “Emergency Medicaid” in their most desperate moments, said Hannah Katch, a previous CMS adviser during the Biden Administration.
“It is unimaginable that CMS will violate the trust of the students in this way,” Katch said. She said that students’ information was not historically distributed outside the agency, unless it is for law enforcement to investigate waste, fraud or abuse program.
Trump’s team aggressively sought information
Last month, Trump’s officials demanded that the Federal Health Agency staff publish a person identifying information about millions of Medicaid students from seven states, allowing non -US citizens to join all Medicaid programs.
The states began these programs during the Biden Administration and said it would not pay to the federal government to cover the health costs of those immigrants. All states – California, New York, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, Minnesota and Colorado – have democratic rulers.
This division with DHS officials led to a widespread echo of lawmakers and managers. Since then, twenty states have sought to court for this step, claiming that it has violated federal health privacy laws.
CMS officials have previously fought and failed to suspend the division of data, which is now in the lawsuit center. On Monday, CMS officials once again discussed whether they should provide DHS access, indicating concern about the litigation.
AP received email Rujul H. Desai, the CMS chief lawyer, said in a mailing network called Hold DHS ACCESS – that they should first ask the Department of Justice to apply to the White House directly for the “pause” about sharing information. The next day, Lena Amanti Yueh, a lawyer at HHS, said the Justice Department is “convenient for CMS, providing DHS access”.
Dozens of Congress members, including Democratic Elder Adam Schiff from California, sent letters to officials of DHS and HHS last month to demand that information was shared.
“The transfer of millions of Medicaid recipients’ personal data would be worrying to every American. This huge violation of our privacy laws must be suspended immediately, ”said Schiff, responding to the AP description of a new, expanded agreement.” It will harm the families of the whole country and only more citizens can abandon the rescue improvement of health care. “
The new agreement clearly shows that DHS will use data for deportation purposes to determine people who are illegally in the country. However, HHS officials have repeatedly argued that it will be used first as a cost -saving tool to investigate whether non -US citizens have not been able to use Medicaid benefits properly.
“The HHS has fully complied with its legal authority and in full compliance with all applicable laws to ensure that Medicaid benefits are intended for persons who are legally entitled to adopt,” the Nixon report said in response to actions for the previous month.