White House Cancels Social Security Numbers of Immigrants: As far as the US Government is concerned, These People No Longer Exist

By placing migrants on Social Security's "death file," the Trump administration aims to cut off their access to credit cards, bank accounts and other financial services, warns The New York Times.

Photo: Mario Kelichhaus | Dreamstime.com

The Trump administration has been aggressively revoking the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who entered the country under President Biden. Now it is taking drastic steps to push some of them to “self-deport” by revoking their Social Security numbers.

The goal is to cut off these people’s access to bank accounts, credit cards, and government benefits. It does so through an unexpected tactic: repurposing the Social Security Administration’s “death file,” which is designed to track the dead, to include living people the government wants to equate with the dead. That cuts them out of the identification system needed for financial transactions.

On the subject: Confiscation of property and huge fines: how migrants who do not want to self-deport will be punished

Last week, the file was updated with the names of more than 6300 migrants whose legal status was revoked. Initially, these were convicted criminals and “suspected terrorists,” but officials are allowing the “dead list” to be expanded to include living and otherwise law-abiding people.

"Their financial life will be terminated," acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek wrote to his employees.

The move is part of a Trump administration push, led by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to use previously unavailable personal data to immigration authorities to push migrants to self-deport. Last week, IRS officials resigned after the agency said they were supposed to help find illegal immigrants.

In February, Dudek agreed with the Department of Homeland Security to hand over the addresses of 98 people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency responsible for deportations. Social Security data had previously been tightly guarded and unavailable to immigration authorities. The use of the data entangles the agency, which was created to pay benefits to seniors and people with disabilities, in efforts to roll back the “open borders” policy that Trump has criticized, raising concerns that data errors could devastate the financial lives of many people, including U.S. citizens.

“Immigration enforcement is not the job of the Social Security Administration,” said Jason Fichtner, a former senior agency official under Bush. “Mistakes can be serious.”

Elizabeth Houston, White House press secretary, said the changes to the Social Security Administration would help advance the president's immigration goals.

"President Trump promised mass deportations. By removing the financial incentive for illegal aliens to stay, we will encourage them to self-deport," she explained. "He is keeping his promise to the American people."

Many of the changes are being driven by Musk, who has spread baseless theories about migrant fraud and payments to the dead, including claims that Democrats were issuing Social Security numbers to keep migrants in the U.S. and change demographics. Musk’s team is cutting staff at the agency, making it harder for recipients to access services.

The agency has now taken over oversight of migrants, including those who entered under Biden, a White House official said.

Biden granted temporary entry to migrants to prevent them from crossing the border illegally. They received work permits, Social Security numbers, and sometimes benefits. More than 500 people from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Haiti entered through parole programs, which were given to migrants arriving in the U.S. if they had sponsors in the U.S. and passed a background check.

Another 900 used the CBP One app to enter through ports of entry with the right to stay and work.

The Trump administration has targeted these programs. The air entry program ends this month, and migrants’ status could be revoked unless the courts rule otherwise. It has also begun revocation proceedings for those who entered the U.S. using the CBP One app.

On April 8, DOGE official Aram Moghadassi sent Dudek a list of 6300 immigrants whose temporary status had been revoked. They are accused of being on a “terrorist watch list” or having “FBI criminal records.” The list includes minors, including a 13-year-old, raising concerns about the list’s credibility.

A White House official said about 1000 migrants received $600 in benefits, including Medicaid and student loans — an average of $000 per person.

The agency has renamed the list the “inadmissible file,” but is still assigning fictitious death dates to migrants. Martin O’Malley, the commissioner of the Social Security Administration under President Joe Biden, called it “financial murder.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a memo to Dudek that the plan would prevent “suspected terrorists” from receiving the benefits of legal status. But she did not specify the criteria.

The death list is the agency's key data set. It is updated with records from medical archives and funeral homes. The list is updated with an average of three million names each year to prevent payouts. The data is accessed by government agencies and banks to protect against fraud. Mistakenly adding a living person to the list can result in the loss of housing and accounts. "Resurrection" can take months.

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Repurposing the list and sharing the addresses could violate data privacy laws, said Kathleen Romey of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Dudek authorized DOGE and the USCIS to use the data for law enforcement purposes. Neither agency confirmed the data transfer.

Agency rules allow the release of information to investigate violent crime or fraud. During Trump's first term, access to the data was blocked for privacy reasons.

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