ICE is using Medicaid data to find out where immigrants live • Oregon Capital Chronicle:
In a win for President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, a recent court ruling has cleared the way for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to resume using states’ Medicaid data to find people who are in the country illegally.
The case is ongoing. But for now, immigrants — including those who are in the country legally — will have to weigh the benefits of gaining health coverage against the risk that enrolling in Medicaid could make them or their family members easier for ICE to find.
The only time legal immigrants have “weigh the benefits” here is if they are actual illegal or if their household is harboring someone who is. Otherwise, there’s nothing to weigh.
By law, federal Medicaid money cannot be used to cover people who are in the country illegally.
But in recent years, nearly half of states, including some led by Republicans, have chosen to use their own Medicaid money to extend coverage to certain groups of people, such as children and pregnant women, regardless of immigration status.
Oregon started offering free health care via “Healthier Oregon” to all illegal immigrants and non-citizens in 2023 under House Bill 3352. For the 2025-2027 biennium the total budget for Healthier Oregon is roughly $1.5 billion, $1.2 billion from state funds and $300 million from federal funds (which are restricted). The program covers 105,000 people of all immigration statuses, but the estimates are that almost all these people are illegal immigrants because otherwise they’d be covered under the Oregon Health Plan.
Oregon spends approximately $750 million a year on providing healthcare to people who aren’t legally in the state.
(As a reference, in 2023, there were about 155,000 illegal immigrants in Oregon though estimates on these types of things are inherently uncertain.)