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The Social Security Administration has entered the names of over 6,300 mostly Latino immigrants into a database that tracks people who have died, according to The New York Times, The Washington Post and CBS News.
The Trump administration is targeting immigrants who have Social Security numbers but have lost their legal status in the U.S. — including those who entered under former President Joe Biden’s temporary work programs. This prevents those impacted from being able to receive Medicaid, Medicare, unemployment insurance, federal loans or other benefits.
President Donald Trump “promised mass deportations and by removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come and stay, we will encourage them to self-deport,” Elizabeth Huston, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement, per The Washington Post. “He is delivering on his promise he made to the American people."
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem requested that the federal agency put pressure on undocumented immigrants to leave the country. More specifically, Noem and Leland Dudek, the acting Social Security commissioner, signed two memorandums of agreement on Monday, April 7, per The Washington Post.
Now, under the Social Security Act, the administration has named living immigrants in the “Death Master File” for national security reasons, an official said, per The Washington Post. The “Death Master File” database has records of more than 85 million deaths dating back to 1936.
An agency employee said that once listed as deceased in the database, their Social Security benefits would immediately terminate, and ultimately, would make them unidentifiable and cause problems with employment.
It will also permit the Commerce Department to mistakenly report that the immigrants have died on their own death database. As a result, it will lead institutions to sever relationships with listed immigrants, and not be included on lists to banks, mortgage companies and employers.
Twenty-two people listed in the 6,300 are receiving student loans, 41 are collecting unemployment insurance and 1,000 are collecting benefits through Medicaid, a White House official said, per The Washington Post.
This newly announced tactic adheres to the Trump administration’s aggressive campaign to force undocumented immigrants out of the U.S. A White House official told The Washington Post that the administration will next target 92,000 undocumented immigrants who have a criminal conviction on the death database, and then eventually add undocumented immigrants without criminal histories.
The recent developments follow Elon Musk's efforts with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to implement major changes at the Social Security Administration.
Musk has previously said that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme.” He claimed in a Fox Business interview on March 10 that “there’s a massive amount of fraud of, basically, people submitting Social Security numbers for Social Security benefits, unemployment, Small Business Administration loans and medical care.” The billionaire entrepreneur added, “We’re trying to put a stop to all of that."
“If you want to know what DOGE is doing at Social Security, this is it,” a White House official said, per The Washington Post.
Related: Trump Shows Off the $5 Million Immigration ‘Gold Card’ with His Face
It follows the Tuesday, April 8, agreement between Homeland Security and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in which the IRS will give tax data it maintains for undocumented immigrants to Homeland Security.
Additionally, last week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services gave the Social Security Administration a database of 800,000 people with final deportation orders.
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A representative for the Social Security Administration did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for more information on Thursday.
The Social Security Administration has entered the names of over 6,300 mostly Latino immigrants into a database that tracks people who have died, according to The New York Times, The Washington Post and CBS News.
The Trump administration is targeting immigrants who have Social Security numbers but have lost their legal status in the U.S. — including those who entered under former President Joe Biden’s temporary work programs. This prevents those impacted from being able to receive Medicaid, Medicare, unemployment insurance, federal loans or other benefits.
President Donald Trump “promised mass deportations and by removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come and stay, we will encourage them to self-deport,” Elizabeth Huston, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement, per The Washington Post. “He is delivering on his promise he made to the American people."
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem requested that the federal agency put pressure on undocumented immigrants to leave the country. More specifically, Noem and Leland Dudek, the acting Social Security commissioner, signed two memorandums of agreement on Monday, April 7, per The Washington Post.
Now, under the Social Security Act, the administration has named living immigrants in the “Death Master File” for national security reasons, an official said, per The Washington Post. The “Death Master File” database has records of more than 85 million deaths dating back to 1936.
An agency employee said that once listed as deceased in the database, their Social Security benefits would immediately terminate, and ultimately, would make them unidentifiable and cause problems with employment.
It will also permit the Commerce Department to mistakenly report that the immigrants have died on their own death database. As a result, it will lead institutions to sever relationships with listed immigrants, and not be included on lists to banks, mortgage companies and employers.
Twenty-two people listed in the 6,300 are receiving student loans, 41 are collecting unemployment insurance and 1,000 are collecting benefits through Medicaid, a White House official said, per The Washington Post.
This newly announced tactic adheres to the Trump administration’s aggressive campaign to force undocumented immigrants out of the U.S. A White House official told The Washington Post that the administration will next target 92,000 undocumented immigrants who have a criminal conviction on the death database, and then eventually add undocumented immigrants without criminal histories.
The recent developments follow Elon Musk's efforts with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to implement major changes at the Social Security Administration.
Musk has previously said that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme.” He claimed in a Fox Business interview on March 10 that “there’s a massive amount of fraud of, basically, people submitting Social Security numbers for Social Security benefits, unemployment, Small Business Administration loans and medical care.” The billionaire entrepreneur added, “We’re trying to put a stop to all of that."
“If you want to know what DOGE is doing at Social Security, this is it,” a White House official said, per The Washington Post.
Related: Trump Shows Off the $5 Million Immigration ‘Gold Card’ with His Face
It follows the Tuesday, April 8, agreement between Homeland Security and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in which the IRS will give tax data it maintains for undocumented immigrants to Homeland Security.
Additionally, last week, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services gave the Social Security Administration a database of 800,000 people with final deportation orders.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
A representative for the Social Security Administration did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for more information on Thursday.
