Data Privacy for Immigrants

For both Medicaid and SNAP, you are only required to provide this information for family members who are seeking benefits. Family members who are not applying for benefits for themselves do not need to disclose this information about themselves. For example, if a parent is applying for a child’s Medicaid, the parent only needs to give the child’s Social Security number and immigration or citizenship status.   

• Please see FAQ “Should I still apply for my US citizen children to have Medicaid and SNAP if I do not have status?” below for more information.

Both Medicaid and SNAP have data privacy protections, but we don’t know if the government will follow these laws.

• Medicaid: Current law prohibits Medicaid officials from sharing recipients’ data with other government agencies unless it’s necessary to help people get their benefits. However, there is no guarantee that Medicaid recipients’ data will not be shared with immigration officials now.
• SNAP: SNAP data privacy is more complicated. There are protections for how SNAP data can be used. For more information about SNAP data privacy, click here.

If you’re already receiving benefits and haven’t changed addresses, there may be little reason to end your benefits because CMS (the federal Medicaid agency) and USDA (the federal SNAP agency) already have your information. Every family must weigh the importance of receiving health insurance and food assistance against the possibility that their data will be shared with immigration agencies or other federal officials.

If immigration agencies already have your current information and address (from an immigration application, having an immigration status, or having immigration court appointments), it’s unlikely that applying for or using Medicaid or SNAP will put you at more risk. This is because they already have access to this information. Every family must weigh the importance of receiving health insurance and food assistance against the possibility that their data will be shared with immigration agencies or other federal officials.

Immigrants who do not qualify for full-benefit Medicaid can still get Emergency Medicaid to cover emergency services. People can apply for Emergency Medicaid at any time in case they have an emergency in the future. But you can also apply within a short period of time after an emergency, which would protect your personal information until Emergency Medicaid is needed after a medical event. Consider speaking to an attorney if you need specific advice.  

Every family must weigh the importance of receiving health insurance against the possibility that their data will be shared with immigration agencies or other federal officials. 

For Medicaid, based on the information we have, it is unlikely that federal Medicaid agencies have any data about individuals who do not apply for Medicaid for themselves. They will only have data about the children who actually receive the Medicaid benefits, not the adult family members who applied on their behalf.  

For SNAP, unlike Medicaid, USDA has requested information about household members’ identity. Due to Virginia’s SNAP rules, Virginia does track the immigration status of non-applicant parents, siblings, and caretakers in a SNAP applicant’s household. When a non-applicant submits an application, they can choose whether to share their immigration status. We do not know how a local DSS might categorize someone who does not share their immigration status in the system.

SNAP and Medicaid, except Long-Term Care Medicaid for institutionalization (such as in a nursing home), do not count towards public charge under current immigration rules. For more information, see resources from Protecting Immigrant Families. 

If you choose to apply for benefits, it is important to keep a copy of the information you provide to make sure that the information is accurate. When you apply over the phone, you do not have immediate access to a copy of what has been written down, and the customer representative could write down incorrect information. For this reason, we recommend that you apply for Medicaid and SNAP online at CommonHelp or by submitting a paper application and keeping a copy of that application for your records.