Our personal data is being exploited as means to surveil, control, and punish those historically marginalized and dissenters. The federal government collects and maintains personal data, such as one’s address, financial information and social security, for the purposes of determining and providing public benefits. While there are guardrails in place to ensure their protection and appropriate usage, when bypassed, the misuse of our data can lead to grave harm.
Since taking office for a second term, the Trump administration has aggressively sought unfettered access to personal data, putting our autonomy, health, and safety at risk.
Unprecedented Weaponization of Sensitive Data
Trump’s executive order, “Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos”, enables personal information to be shared across agencies under the guise of efficiency. This move is an attempt to consolidate government databases, which are typically disconnected for privacy and security purposes. In doing so, the administration can amass access to anything from a person’s health information to their bank account number. This accumulation of personal data could enable the government to punish dissidence by denying an individual public services and benefits, such as medical care. It could also facilitate the government in targeting marginalized communities, especially immigrants, whom the administration has scapegoated and attacked since entering office.
Furthermore, in an effort to centralize data for purposes other than to meet the needs of citizens, Trump is contracting with Palantir, a data-mining company co-founded by Trump supporter Peter Thiel, to build an arsenal of our personal information. Palantir is already the leading tech company behind Trump’s mass detention and deportation plan. Under the data deal, Palantir would compile data across key agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Education, and Health and Human Services. The database would use compiled sensitive data and artificial intelligence to profile and identify behavior deemed “risky.” With the creation of this mega-surveillance apparatus, the government could more easily target communities and behaviors it labels a “threat” bypassing guardrails that ensure federal data is protected and appropriately used.
Attacks Against Migrant Communities: A Blueprint for How Data Can be Weaponized
Trump’s war on migrants has been intensified through the exploitation of federal data systems. As of April, the IRS signed an agreement with U.S. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to share tax records in an effort to assist immigration authorities in locating and deporting migrants. The agreement departs from years of assurance the IRS has given that undocumented immigrants and other non-U.S. citizens’ tax information would remain confidential. This change has raised fears, and could discourage millions of undocumented migrants from filing their taxes. Last month, the Trump administration handed over data on immigrant Medicaid enrollees to deportation officials, in violation of HIPAA privacy protections and other federal laws. This decision to disclose immigrant’s Medicaid information specifically targets states and localities like Washington D.C. and Illinois, where state taxpayer dollars have been allocated for non-U.S. citizens to have access to healthcare coverage. This comes as the Republican’s Budget law tried (and failed) to punish states that provide healthcare coverage to undocumented immigrants using its state funds (federal funds are barred from covering undocumented immigrants). Now, the personal data of the country’s 79 million Medicaid enrollees has been shared with ICE officials, with the sole purpose of identifying and deporting undocumented immigrants. This massive data transfer gives ICE officials access to all enrollees’ names, addresses, and social security numbers. This agreement extends attacks beyond the few states that use their tax dollars to cover undocumented and some lawfully present immigrants, who are otherwise excluded from Medicaid and other federally funded health programs. This move threatens the use of emergency Medicaid, a federally required program available to everyone, regardless of status, to temporarily cover emergency care. For many immigrants, the emergency room is their only source of care—forced to wait till it’s too late to access care due to fears of deportation and exclusion from federal health coverage. The disclosure of our health data for the intent of fulfilling the administration’s 3,000 daily immigration arrests quota, creates a dangerous precedent where the public services we use and depend on are weaponized to cause harm.
Doxxing (or sharing someone’s personal information online without their consent) is another risk from Trump’s data grab. The administration has deployed this tactic to silence those who challenge its assault on migrant communities. In April, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father wrongfully detained and deported to a maximum torture prison in El Salvador, was forced into hiding by the Department of Homeland Security. Jennifer is now being targeted by the administration, with DHS exposing her address on X (formerly Twitter) for being outspoken about her husband’s wrongful deportation and advocating for his return.
The Long-Term Impacts on Health & Wellbeing
These data violations create confusion and fear and harm immigrant’s health and well-being. We have already seen how the current uptick in deportations and the rescission of “sensitive areas” policy that shielded hospitals from immigration enforcement has discouraged migrants from seeking medical care. A recent survey conducted by KFF revealed that immigrants, regardless of status, are avoiding medical care and public assistance and experiencing worsening health conditions due to deportation concerns. Research shows that as the risk of deportation increases, prenatal and newborn health decline and mixed-status families’ hesitate to use and enroll their children in Medicaid. When migrant communities are forced to delay care, preventable conditions worsen and go untreated until far too late.
The Trump administration’s misuse of federal data to escalate attacks against immigrants exposes the disturbing and harmful implications of eliminating information silos and combining disparate datasets. These actions erode public trust and undermine our collective safety.
We must continue to call out these abuses of power and privacy, and the ways our sensitive data is being employed to intimidate and control us. We urgently need stronger federal data privacy protections and enforcement so that people have sufficient guardrails to prevent their personal information from being exploited to inflict harm.
