The Trump administration has brought in agencies that have never done so before to handle immigration enforcement.

Employees of five federal departments that are far removed from immigration policy tasks admitted to the publication Wiredthat they are being forced to support Trump's anti-immigration campaign.

The current administration has made immigration a central element of its policy agenda. Departments are tasked with finding new immigration offices, sharing data on immigrants, and helping to remove government benefits and services from them. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) received unprecedented funding through the "Big Beautiful Act," which allocated nearly $80 billion to DHS, $45 billion of which went directly to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Since Trump took office, ICE has doubled in size, claiming to have hired an additional 12,000 new agents.

On the subject: A former ICE instructor has revealed that agents are currently undergoing 'flawed and dangerous' training.

But efforts to persecute immigrants have expanded far beyond DHS and have spread across the government, involving departments whose work previously had little or no connection to immigration. Since last year, DHS has been creating a database for tracking immigrants, pulling in data from the Social Security Administration (SSA), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and state-level voting records. Months later, even more departments have been drawn into the effort.

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

States and nonprofits may lose access to federal grants if the government determines that these funds could be used to "finance, promote, encourage, subsidize, or facilitate" illegal immigration. OMB, which formulates the president's budget and implements the administration's policy agenda across all departments, is currently revising its guidelines and requirements for grant recipients.

According to sources familiar with the draft, OMB is updating 2 CFR Part 200 (the so-called uniform guidance on federal grants). The new guidance will include language stating that federal grants "shall not be used to fund, promote, encourage, subsidize, or facilitate" several topics that have become the administration's focus, including "racial preferences or other forms of racial discrimination," "denial of a person's gender binary," "illegal immigration," or "initiatives that undermine public safety or advance un-American values."

The rule will affect federal grants in 26 departments. A government official, who wished to remain anonymous, says, "It's impossible to objectively determine some of these things." He adds that support for, for example, the children of undocumented immigrants could be construed as support for "illegal immigration."

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

HUD targeted "mixed-status families," defined as families where some members are citizens and some are immigrants. In January, HUD Assistant Secretary Benjamin Hobbs sent a letter to Public Housing Authorities (PHAs), the agencies authorized to manage affordable housing funded by HUD, demanding that they double-check the immigration status and eligibility of each resident.

“HUD strongly encourages PHAs to require families to provide proof of citizenship—such as birth certificates, naturalization certificates, passports, or other documents,” the letter states.

It states that if a PHA knows of a resident who is "in the United States unlawfully," then "the PHA is required to provide DHS with a report containing the name, address, and other identifying information of that individual."

PHAs were previously required to verify eligibility for occupancy in taxpayer-funded facilities. But now HUD requires the use of a new Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) report, which cross-references HUD data with data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) System for Alien Benefit Verification (SAVE). The report contains "a list of individuals whose citizenship or immigration status requires verification" by HUD.

On February 19, HUD proposed a new rule that would prohibit "mixed-status households" from receiving certain government benefits. The press release stated that a recent HUD and DHS audit of all subsidized households identified "200,000 tenants with incomplete or unknown verification of eligibility" and 24,000 individuals the agency labeled "illegal aliens and fraudulent individuals" in "mixed-status" households.

Previously, families with mixed status received proportional support based on the number of eligible members. The new rule will make this proportional support temporary—"until all family members' eligibility is confirmed." Furthermore, proof of citizenship or legal status must be provided for each person residing in subsidized housing.

Social Security Administration (SSA)

The SSA has been working on the administration's immigration agenda for months, from handing over immigrant data to DHS to making it more difficult for legal immigrants to obtain Social Security numbers.

In March 2025, the SSA suspended the Enumeration Beyond Entry program, which automatically issued Social Security numbers to immigrants authorized to live and work in the United States. Instead, they are required to appear in person at an SSA office for identity verification.

In the spring of 2025, thousands of members of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) assigned to the SSA were transferred to the "death master file." This effectively deactivated their Social Security numbers and prevented them from accessing benefits and working in the United States. States now use the SAVE system to verify immigration status for voter rolls, resulting in naturalized citizens losing their voting rights.

SAVE is essentially the same system used by HUD to assess eligibility for subsidized housing. On December 19, 2025, USCIS (a division of DHS) issued a memorandum ending expedited processing of citizenship applications for recipients of Supplemental Security Income (SSI). SSI provides monthly payments to the elderly, disabled, or those with minimal income and resources. Victims of human trafficking and refugees (especially from Iraq, Ukraine, and Afghanistan) are also eligible for these benefits, typically for seven years. Previously, if a naturalization application had been pending for more than six months and SSI benefits were about to run out, the applicant was moved to the front of the queue.

"But that will just allow them to wait until refugee status expires and people lose benefits," said an SSA official, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

In February 2026, employees at some SSA offices were told to share appointment data with ICE.

Department of Labor (DOL)

Having gained access to DOL data, the administration is now focusing on cracking down on businesses that employ immigrants. Last year, WIRED reported that DOGE gained access to the DOL's database of migrant farmworkers and the organizations that support them. In July, the agency announced that all recipients of grants under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and other programs are required to verify that each service provider is legally authorized to work in the United States.

In September, the DOL announced Project Firewall, which will investigate companies offering H-1B visas. Employees were recently informed that enforcement priorities include pursuing businesses that violate immigration laws by paying workers less than the minimum hourly wage. A particular emphasis is placed on how this harms U.S. citizens.

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Like the SSA, HHS also shares data with immigration authorities. In November, the agency announced that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) would begin sharing Medicare and Medicaid data with DHS and ICE. Some immigrants are eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, especially green card holders, provided they were enrolled no earlier than five years after becoming a U.S. resident.

You may be interested in: top New York news, stories of our immigrants and helpful tips about life in the Big Apple - read it all on ForumDaily New York

A KFF Health News investigation found that doctors are weighing whether to inform patients about the new data sharing agreement because it could discourage them from enrolling in Emergency Medicaid or seeking treatment.

In December, following conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley's allegations that Minnesota's Somali immigrant community had committed widespread fraud at some of the state's child care centers, former HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill announced a freeze on state child care funding. The fraud allegations led to a massive anti-immigration operation in Minneapolis, where approximately 3000 ICE agents arrived. During the operation, federal agents killed two American citizens, Alex Preti and Renee Goode. Vice President J.D. Vance, who now leads the administration's anti-fraud efforts, and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz announced in late February that the administration would suspend Medicaid payments to the state due to government fraud allegations.

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