Headline Roundup • July 18th, 2025
How ICE Is Ramping Up Efforts to Find Unauthorized Immigrants
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Recent reports reveal that the Trump administration granted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) access to personal information to locate and deport unauthorized immigrants.
Medicaid Data Sharing: According to the Associated Press (Left bias), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will provide ICE with access to data from 79 million Medicaid enrollees to assist in locating unauthorized immigrants. This information includes names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and ethnicities. While Medicaid prohibits unauthorized immigrants from enrolling, federal law mandates all states to provide emergency Medicaid to individuals regardless of immigration status. Fox News (Right) wrote that “about 1.4 million people currently on Medicaid do not meet citizenship and immigration status requirements,” according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Collaboration With the IRS: A blueprint obtained by ProPublica (Lean Left) shows the IRS is developing an automated system to give ICE access to confidential taxpayer data. Previously, IRS General Counsel Andrew De Mello refused to release data on 7.3 million individuals, citing legal issues, and was forced out two days later. According to Straight Arrow News (Center), the new system would allegedly be required to provide names, previous addresses, evidence of immigration removal orders, the criminal statutes being used to investigate targets and the tax period from which the data is sought.
Privacy Concerns: Both moves have raised questions regarding the legality of the access to IRS and Medicaid enrollee data. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the initiative will ensure illegal immigrants do not receive taxpayer-funded health benefits. Kiran Savage-Sangwan, the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network (CPEHN) executive director, called the action cruel, saying, “The Trump Administration aims to weaponize records of patients…to not only accelerate its mass deportation agenda, but to further spread fear in communities already terrorized by ICE.”
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Featured Coverage of this Story
Photo from Jaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is developing a system that would provide federal immigration authorities with on-demand access to sensitive taxpayer information. The system, first reported by ProPublica, is stirring concern among IRS employees and civil liberties advocates, while some Trump administration officials defend its development as necessary for deporting “criminal illegal aliens.”
Photo from AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will be given access to the personal data of the nation’s 79 million Medicaid enrollees, including home addresses and ethnicities, to track down immigrants who may not be living legally in the United States, according to an agreement obtained by The Associated Press.
BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was recently granted access to Medicaid enrollee data, aiding officers tasked with fulfilling the Trump administration's objective of tracking down and deporting illegal immigrants. Medicaid, which uses taxpayer dollars to provide health insurance to low-income adults and children, has more than 71 million enrollees as of March 2025. The information shared with ICE will include home addresses and ethnicities, according to a report from The Associated Press. The agreement, brokered between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Homeland Security...
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