ICE agents were seen outside an immigrant detention center in Newark, New Jersey, in May 2026, following revelations of improper data sharing between Medicaid officials and ICE. According to recent court filings, Medicaid officials shared data of millions with ICE, who then passed this data to Palantir, a data analytics firm. Palantir operates an application known as ELITE, which ICE uses to locate addresses of noncitizens potentially facing deportation.
This revelation emerged in a motion filed by over 20 Democratic attorneys general. They previously initiated legal action against the Trump administration over the data-sharing agreement involving the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and ICE.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, based in California, had ruled in December that health officials could share specific Medicaid data with ICE. This data included immigrants’ home addresses, dates of birth, and immigration status. However, Chhabria paused the data sharing in May due to CMS admitting they shared more data than allowed by the court’s order.
The issue came to light when datasets included information about U.S. citizens and millions of legal residents. ICE was to delete improperly shared data, and Chhabria scheduled a hearing in August to clarify which noncitizens’ data could legally be shared with ICE.
Recently, federal officials admitted further incorrect data sharing instances. The Justice Department disclosed that CMS once again shared a dataset with ICE that should not have been sent. This error occurred during data sharing efforts from non-suit states. Alberto Briseno, a chief at ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations, confirmed personnel deleted this file. A broader search revealed some users still possessed copies.
Briseno noted technological challenges in ensuring the deletion of all variations of the file. ICE pledged continued efforts to remove any remaining copies. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice seeks to expand Judge Chhabria’s order to include data on a wider group of noncitizens, potentially all who are not legal permanent residents or citizens.
The Democratic attorneys general responded that ICE’s inappropriate possession of Medicaid records undermines its request for enhanced access. They highlighted ongoing violations of the court order, raising doubts about CMS’s ability to securely maintain and protect privacy in compliance with the order.
Palantir did not respond to inquiries regarding whether they deleted the dataset shared by ICE. The Department of Homeland Security also provided no comment. According to California Deputy Attorney General Anna Rich, data was shared over Microsoft Teams chat and later deleted. A document in discovery shows a redacted transcript of ICE personnel asking Palantir to erase the file.
Judge Chhabria warned the federal government would lose access to Medicaid data for deportation if it can’t manage citizen and legal immigrant data properly. He emphasized, “If the federal government cannot be sufficiently careful then it can’t use the information, ok?”
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