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Obama-Appointed Judge Greenlights Trump Deportation Push — ICE Allowed to Use Medicaid Data to Track and Deport Illegal Aliens After Blue-State Block Fails
by Jim Hᴏft Jan. 1, 2026 8:00 pm143 Comments
In a major victory for border enforcement and the rule of law, a federal judge has cleared the way for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to use Medicaid data to locate and deport illegal aliens, rejecting a coordinated legal assault by Democrat-run states attempting to shield unlawful migrants from federal authorities.
On December 29, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California, appointed by Barack Obama, denied blue states’ attempt to block Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from using Medicaid data to identify and deport illegal aliens, delivering a significant win for federal immigration enforcement and a sharp rebuke to sanctuary-state lawfare
A coalition of deep-blue states—including California, New York, Illinois, Oregon, Washington, and others—filed suit to stop the Trump administration from accessing Medicaid records, claiming the move violated privacy laws and administrative procedures.
In his ruling, Judge Chhabria made clear that federal law explicitly authorizes DHS to obtain identifying information from other federal agencies to carry out immigration enforcement.
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The court found that ICE is lawfully entitled to receive basic biographical and contact information:
- Citizenship and immigration status
- Address and phone number
- Date of birth
- Medicaid identification number
The court cited longstanding federal statutes requiring agencies to make information about the identity and location of illegal aliens available to DHS upon request, rejecting the states’ argument that HHS could simply refuse to comply.
The plaintiff also argued that federal privacy laws—including HIPAA, the Affordable Care Act, and the Privacy Act—barred the data-sharing arrangement.
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Again, the court shut them down.
Judge Chhabria ruled that privacy laws expressly allow disclosures for law enforcement purposes, including immigration enforcement, and that the Medicaid data at issue does not fall under the ACA’s exchange-data restrictions.
The court further noted that the Privacy Act does not even apply to illegal aliens in the first place.
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While the judge temporarily restricted ICE from accessing any non-basic or vaguely defined data—such as sensitive medical records or information about U.S. citizens in mixed-status households—he left the heart of the policy fully intact.
ICE is still free to use Medicaid data containing basic identifying and location information to find illegal aliens and enforce immigration law while the case continues.
That is precisely the data ICE needs to locate individuals who are unlawfully present in the country and already known to be receiving taxpayer-funded benefits.
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Earlier this year, a federal judge appointed by Trump in Washington, D.C., denied a motion by far-left immigrant advocacy groups seeking to block the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from sharing taxpayer information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for the purpose of locating and removing illegal immigrants.
Judge Dabney L. Friedrich, appointed by President Trump, ruled that the IRS is legally authorized under federal statute to provide taxpayer address information to ICE if it is connected to criminal immigration investigations.
The case, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos et al. v. Scott Bessent et al., was filed by several immigration activist organizations, including “Immigrant Solidarity DuPage” and “Somos Un Pueblo Unido,” who argued that the IRS’s data-sharing plan with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was illegal, arbitrary, and violated immigrants’ trust.
But Judge Friedrich was unswayed, pointing directly to Section 6103(i)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code, which explicitly allows federal agencies to request and receive tax return information—such as names and addresses—for criminal investigations.
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