For months, Democrats have flatly insisted that illegal immigrants aren’t receiving taxpayer-funded health care through Medicare or Medicaid. They’ve repeated it endlessly, with the media dutifully nodding along. Just two weeks ago, House Speaker Mike Johnson even released a video montage laying it all out—Democrats and their press allies, on camera, swearing up and down that this simply isn’t happening.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins said, “People who are here in the United States illegally have never been eligible for the Obamacare subsidies, for Medicare, or for Medicaid.” Her colleague Jake Tapper also said it wasn’t happening, telling Johnson himself, “So just as a point of fact,” Tapper said, “it’s against the law for non-citizens to get those subsidies.”
Meet the Press host Kristen Welker also claimed it wasn’t happening. “Undocumented immigrants, as you know, are actually ineligible for federal healthcare…Right now, undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federal healthcare programs,” she said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also said similar things. Gavin Newsom proved them all liars, as Johnson’s video showed.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer were singing the same tune, insisting illegal immigrants weren’t getting Medicaid. California Gov. Gavin Newsom blew that talking point to pieces, as Speaker Mike Johnson’s video made painfully clear.
Now a federal judge has dealt Democrats yet another blow—this time from the bench. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria ruled in favor of the Trump administration, allowing it to share location data on illegal immigrants receiving public health insurance benefits with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, beginning in January:
Trump admin can share immigrants’ Medicaid data with ICE, judge rules https://t.co/KjcqsKaop9
— POLITICO (@politico) December 29, 2025
Well, gosh. How is it possible that President Trump can share Medicaid info with ICE after Dems have sworn time and time again that illegal aliens aren’t getting Medicaid?
Gee, how can President Trump share Medicaid data with ICE when Democrats have sworn up and down that illegal immigrants aren’t getting Medicaid?
Chhabria wrote in the seven-page order: “The sharing of such information is clearly authorized by law, and the agencies have adequately explained their decisions.”
Democrat-run states fought the data sharing tooth and nail—and of course they did—which is exactly why the case dragged its way through the courts, with California joined by 21 other blue states running interference.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the Trump administration back in July in a last-ditch effort to block the use of Medicaid data to identify and locate illegal immigrants. A spokesperson for the California Department of Justice even claimed that illegal immigrants enrolled in the state’s health care system under the belief their information would be used only for medical purposes.
“The Trump Administration’s effort to use Medicaid data for immigration enforcement is a violation of their trust and will lead to fewer people seeking vital healthcare,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
If this decision results in a decrease in undocumented individuals relying on taxpayer funds for healthcare — healthcare that Democrats claimed they weren’t receiving initially — then that’s a very good thing.
Politico even acknowledges that individuals who are in the country illegally do not qualify for federal Medicaid programs; however, states like California, Illinois, Colorado, New York, Washington, Oregon, and Minnesota permit Medicaid enrollment regardless of immigration status.
The ruling restricts data sharing concerning people in the U.S. illegally and may encompass details such as citizenship, immigration status, residence address, phone number, date of birth, and Medicaid identification number. Additionally, it forbids the collection of information from other immigrants utilizing Medicaid and prevents HHS and ICE from sharing any “potentially sensitive medical information.”
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the ruling is a “victory for the rule of law and American taxpayers,” and she’s exactly right. Next: Let’s start seeing the guilty pay the price. Wait…that seems to be happening.
