Attorney General Ellison sues Trump Administration for illegally sharing personal health data with ICE
Lawsuit seeks to bar ICE from using illegally shared data for immigration enforcement and prevent HHS from taking similar action in the future
Data was reportedly shared about individuals in California, Illinois, Washington, and Washington D.C.
July 2, 2025 (SAINT PAUL) — Attorney General Ellison announced today he joined a multistate coalition in filing a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) decision to provide unfettered access to individual personal health data to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which houses Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In the seven decades since Congress enacted the Medicaid Act to provide medical assistance to vulnerable populations, federal law, policy, and practice has been clear: the personal healthcare data collected about beneficiaries of the program is confidential, to be shared only in certain narrow circumstances that benefit public health and the integrity of the Medicaid program itself. In today’s lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the attorneys general argue that mass transfer of this data violates the law and ask the court to block any new transfer or use of this data for immigration enforcement purposes.
“I am outraged that Doanld Trump’s cronies shared private health data with ICE to help create a mass deportation database,” said Attorney General Keith Ellison. “Make no mistake, the climate of fear and distrust created by actions like this will cause people to forego urgent medical care, withdraw from government programs that allow their kids to see a doctor, or decline future government services they qualify for. People will suffer because of this, and that is unacceptable. Today, I am suing the Trump Administration to block them from sharing Medicaid illegally data going forward, and to prevent ICE from weaponizing this data against people in our state.”
Created in 1965, Medicaid, known in Minnesota as Medical Assistance , is an essential source of health insurance for lower-income individuals and particular underserved population groups, including children, pregnant women, individuals with disabilities, and seniors. The Medicaid program allows each participating state to develop and administer its own unique health plans; states must meet threshold federal statutory criteria, but they can tailor their plans’ eligibility standards and coverage options to residents’ needs. As of January 2025, 78.4 million people were enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) nationwide.
Medical Assistance is Minnesota’s largest health care program. Medical Assistance provides health coverage for over one million Minnesotans, or approximately one in every five state residents. In Minnesota, 42% of Medical Assistance enrollees are children, 14% are parents, and another 9% are people with disabilities.
A certain amount of personal data is routinely exchanged between the states and the federal government for purposes of administering Medicaid, including verifying eligibility for federal funding. The states have and will continue to cooperate with federal oversight activities to ensure that the federal government pays only for those Medicaid services that are legally authorized. But now, the federal government appears to have — without formal acknowledgment — adopted a new policy that allows for the wholesale disclosure and use of state residents’ personal Medicaid data for immigration enforcement. Historically, DHS has acknowledged that the Medicaid Act and other federal healthcare authorities foreclose the use of Medicaid personal information for immigration enforcement purposes.
On June 13, 2025, news agencies reported that HHS had transferred en masse to DHS Medicaid data files that contained personal health records representing millions of individuals in California, Illinois, Washington, and Washington D.C. Reports indicate that the federal government plans to create a sweeping database for “mass deportations” and other large-scale immigration enforcement purposes.
In today’s lawsuit, the coalition highlights that the Trump Administration’s illegal actions are creating fear and confusion that will lead noncitizens and their family members to disenroll, or refuse to enroll, in emergency Medicaid for which they are otherwise eligible, leaving states and their safety net hospitals to foot the bill for federally mandated emergency healthcare services. These individuals may not get the emergency health services they need and will suffer negative health consequences — and even death — as a result.
The coalition asks that the court find the Trump Administration’s actions arbitrary and capricious and rulemaking without proper procedure in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, contrary to the Social Security Act, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Federal Information Security Modernization Act, and Privacy Act, and in violation of the Spending Clause. The coalition also asks the court to enjoin HHS from transferring personally identifiable Medicaid data to DHS and enjoin DHS from using this data to conduct immigration enforcement.
In filing the lawsuit, Attorney General Ellison joins the attorneys general of California, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
