Wyden, Merkley demand halt to Medicaid data transfers to ICE after court order violations

WASHINGTON D.C. (KTVZ) -- U.S. Democratic Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley demanded today that federal health and homeland security agencies immediately stop transferring Medicaid data to immigration enforcement officials following acknowledged court order violations.

The demand follows an acknowledgment by the Department of Health and Human Services that it transferred protected Medicaid information—including records of U.S. citizens—to immigration authorities three times in violation of a federal court order. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had previously entered an agreement in July 2025 to grant immigration officials access to enrollee personal data, including addresses and immigration status, before a federal court placed guardrails on data sharing in December 2025.

The lawmakers sent their demand in letters to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Wyden led the letter with Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Massachusetts, alongside Merkley, D-Oregon, Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

In the letter, the senators criticized the unauthorized sharing of private health records for enforcement actions.

“Congress has a responsibility to ensure that the personal health information of the tens of millions of people who rely on Medicaid is protected and that HHS and CMS comply with federal court orders,” the senators wrote. “Medicaid enrollees have a right to expect that their private information will be safeguarded and not employed for mass deportation campaigns.”

Addressing the court order violations, the lawmakers called for an immediate halt to data transfers and full disclosure to affected enrollees.

“Each person whose information was inappropriately disclosed is entitled to know what happened to it and Congress is entitled to know how a federal agency came to violate the same court order three times in six months,” the senators added. “And HHS must suspend all Medicaid data transfers to ICE and DHS pending a comprehensive review of HHS's controls and the court's continuing oversight.”

The letter is part of broader efforts by the Oregon senators regarding ICE surveillance and data privacy. Wyden previously pressed the Department of the Treasury over taxpayer data sharing with ICE and led 70 congressional Democrats in requesting an investigation into federal agencies purchasing location data without a warrant. Merkley and Wyden also previously introduced the ICE Out of Our Faces Act to restrict the agency's use of facial recognition technology.

The lawmakers requested that HHS, CMS and DHS answer specific oversight questions by Sept. 4, 2026. The requested details include the total number of citizen Medicaid records provided to ICE or DHS since January 2025, a log of all data transfers made since June 2025 and the identities of officials responsible for overseeing the transfers.