U.S. Enters 6,000 Immigrants In Database For Dead People

The Social Security Administration this week entered the names and Social Security numbers of more than 6,000 mostly Latino immigrants into a database it uses to track dead people, erasing their ability to receive benefits or work legally in the U.S. The move, requested by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, is aimed at putting pressure on the undocumented immigrants to leave the country, the Washington Post reports. Among the people being targeted are immigrants who have bona fide Social Security numbers but have lost their legal status in the U.S., such as those who entered under one of the Biden administration’s temporary work programs that have since ended. A White House official said those who were moved into the Social Security database this week all have ties to terrorist activity or criminal records. The official did not provide evidence of the alleged crimes or terrorist ties but said some are included on the FBI’s terror watch list.

“President Trump promised mass deportations and by removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come and stay, we will encourage them to self deport,” said Elizabeth Huston, a White House spokeswoman. “He is delivering on his promise he made to the American people.” The immigrants’ names were placed in the database under two memorandums of agreement signed Monday by Noem and Leland Dudek, the acting Social Security commissioner. The memos authorize Social Security to place the immigrants in the death file for national security reasons and under the Social Security Act. Some current and former Social Security officials questioned the legality of the practice, saying that adding names of people that the agency knows have not died to the death database violates privacy laws that no longer apply when someone has actually died. The action marks the start of a major campaign by the Trump administration to force out potentially hundreds of thousands who are living in the U.S. illegally but who have a Social Security number, allowing them to collect Medicaid, Medicare, unemployment insurance, federal loans or other benefits. The next target for inclusion in the database will be 92,000 undocumented immigrants with some kind of criminal conviction, but the effort will expand to undocumented immigrants without criminal histories after that.