Grand Theft America / Receipt power-2025-06-13-055
79 million Medicaid records are handed to deportation officers
CMS begins transferring Medicaid enrollee data to DHS—first from a handful of states in June; by July, a CMS–DHS agreement gives ICE access to the full database of ~79 million enrollees, including names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers and ethnic and racial information (AP).
What happened
Under the July agreement ICE officials are given access to the Medicaid database covering roughly 79 million enrollees; per the agreement obtained by the Associated Press it reveals their names, addresses, birth dates, ethnic and racial information and Social Security numbers. CNN reports the agreement does not allow ICE to download the data, and KFF describes it as direct access to the T-MSIS system for renewable two-month periods. The agreement reversed prior policy: CMS had assured the public, applicants, enrollees, health care providers and states that information collected to determine eligibility for health coverage would not be used for immigration enforcement. KFF notes the T-MSIS data is significantly lagged—the version available to researchers runs almost two years behind. A federal judge blocked the sharing on August 12, 2025; HHS re-established it through a Federal Register notice published November 25.
Why it matters
Once health and benefits data sits inside DHS, the same joined database that finds an undocumented immigrant can find anyone the executive names. The machinery does not care about the category.
Receipt details
- Phase 1
- Build a surveillance machine
- Fuse government data into one system
