The Trump administration can continue its practice of sharing the biographical, location, and contact information of illegal immigrants between federal agencies early in the new year, a federal judge ruled on Monday.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, of the Northern District of California, issued the preliminary injunction order Monday evening. The order allows the Department of Health and Human Services to continue sharing the Medicaid data of illegal immigrants with the Department of Homeland Security for immigration enforcement purposes.
Chhabria denied the request of multiple states for a preliminary injunction to block the sharing of data, saying DHS and HHS sufficiently explained their data-sharing policies.
“The motion is denied as to the data that is the primary focus of the new policies—basic biographical, location, and contact information—because the sharing of such information is clearly authorized by law and the agencies have adequately explained their decisions,” Chhabria wrote in the order.
The same judge initially ordered a preliminary injunction barring the agencies from sharing the illegal immigrants’ Medicaid data in the plaintiff states in August. He extended that preliminary injunction through Jan. 5, 2026, in early December. On Jan. 6, 2026, the new order will take effect, and the agencies can continue sharing data across the United States, including in the plaintiff states.
Chhabria specified in the order that HHS can share “basic biographical, location, and contact information,” limited to any of the six following categories: citizenship, immigration status, address, phone number, date of birth, and Medicaid ID.
However, Chhabria granted the states’ motion for a preliminary injunction on the sharing of any information outside of those categories of basic biographical, location, and contact information.
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“The new policies are totally unclear about what that information would be, why it would be needed for immigration enforcement purposes, and what the risks of sharing it with DHS would be,” he wrote about any further data.
The plaintiff states in the lawsuit are California, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii,
Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey,
New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. Twenty of the states filed the original complaint in July, while Kentucky and Wisconsin joined the lawsuit later.