Overview
- The court authorized DHS and HHS to provide ICE with five fields of beneficiary data: citizenship or immigration status, home address, phone number, date of birth and Medicaid ID.
- The order forbids sharing medical or other sensitive clinical information, blocks vague case‑by‑case requests, and bars data on U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents and mixed‑status households.
- ICE may resume using the permitted Medicaid‑derived data for immigration investigations on January 6, 2026, with broader data exchanges still enjoined.
- DHS welcomed the decision as a win for the rule of law, while California Attorney General Rob Bonta criticized it as contrary to Medi‑Cal enrollees’ expectations of privacy.
- The ruling follows CMS’s 2025 policy shift and a CMS–DHS agreement that spurred multi‑state lawsuits, and the judge flagged policy vagueness that keeps key legal questions unresolved as the case proceeds.