- ICE shared Medicaid data it improperly received from CMS with the data analytics firm Palantir, which operates the ELITE app used for deportation enforcement.
- The improper data sharing was revealed in a court filing by Democratic attorneys general suing the Trump administration over the data-sharing agreement between CMS and ICE.
- A federal judge had limited data sharing, but CMS violated the order by sharing data of millions, including U.S. citizens and legal immigrants, in January.
- ICE was ordered to delete the improperly shared data, but later discovered additional copies among six users; Palantir stated it purged the dataset per government instruction.
- The Department of Justice is seeking to expand the court order to allow ICE broader access to noncitizen data, while attorneys general argue ICE's inability to secure data undermines its request.
- Judge Chhabria warned that if the federal government cannot be careful with data, it cannot use it for deportation efforts.