How ICE could use Medicare data to increase deportations

It seems incredible that in these times when anything is known, there are strategies on the part of governments to use databases and records of citizens to pursue other purposes, which even if they are 'justified' are not legal.

One of these cases is brewing in the United States, where the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (better known as ICE), made an incredible request to the Center for Medicare Services through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the controversial division in which Donald Trump put billionaire Elon Musk at the helm.

ICE and DOGE tap into a medical database

The Washington Post revealed that U.S. government officials intend to make use of a confidential Medicare database called the Integrated Data Repository, in a new attempt to make Trump's initiative to continue 'hunting' undocumented immigrants more effective

The conflict arises because this database is managed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and only includes medical and personal information, but also has addresses of beneficiaries in the database, and therefore were requested by ICE.

This service made the controversial request in order to be able to cross-reference Social Security numbers of a group of immigrants with the Medicare database, something that clearly cannot be done, not even under an argument of 'national security', and not in a systematic way.

A new legal affront: will there be consequences?

The problem has another layer, because the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was the applicant, and this does not add much to the controversies in which it is involved, after in recent months it tried to access confidential data systems in different US government agencies.

It is undoubtedly a recurring issue that was thought to be over, but it is particularly serious because an attempt has never been made to use a strictly medical for migration policy purposes