CNN
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The Department of Homeland Security requested the Social Security Administration to enter more than 6,000 names of immigrants into its database used to track dead people, according to a DHS official with knowledge of the decision.
The move will effectively financially starve the immigrants, cutting off their ability to legally work in the country, receive various government benefits and access financial services like credit and bank accounts. The Trump administration is hoping it will drive them to self-deport, according to the official. It’s all a part of the administration’s efforts to crack down on migrants in the country.
The move, first reported by The New York Times, targets immigrants who have Social Security numbers and may have entered the United States under programs that have ended, like the Biden administration’s temporary work programs.
A White House official told CNN the immigrants in question are temporarily paroled on the terror watchlist or have FBI criminal records and are ineligible to receive Social Security benefits. But the official did not provide any further evidence to support that claim. “Effective April 8, 2025, CBP terminated parole for all these people with written notice to each of them,” the official said.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the government is finally doing what it should have all along: sharing information across the federal government to solve problems,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement to CNN. “Information sharing across agencies is essential to identify who is in our country, including violent criminals, determine what public safety and terror threats may exist, scrub these individuals from voter rolls, as well as identify what public benefits these aliens are using at taxpayer expense.”
Another source with knowledge of activities at SSA tells CNN the DOGE leaders there have now renamed the database previously known as the Social Security Death Master file to the “Ineligible file.”
The announcement drew sharp criticism from the former SSA commissioner, Martin O’Malley, who served under former President Joe Biden.
“If they can, contrary to the law and every regulation and without any due process, mark people inside SSA’s database dead who legally entered the country and were legally required to be issued a work SSA number, then they can do that to anybody,” O’Malley told CNN.
White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said in a statement: “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. He is delivering on his promise he made to the American people.”
Immigrants receive Social Security numbers when they are authorized to work legally in the US. These numbers are crucial for them to land employment.
The agency, however, has recently made it more difficult for immigrants to obtain numbers and cards by requiring them to go to field offices to get the documents instead of having them issued by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. The change was first reported by Popular Information and confirmed to CNN by a former Social Security official.
Also, Elon Musk has claimed without evidence that immigrants are abusing the system and improperly receiving Social Security numbers. He claimed that Democrats are trying to use the program to lure immigrants and tip voting in favor of their party.
Senate Finance Committee ranking member, Democrat Ron Wyden whose committee oversees Social Security said the move takes away earned benefits.
“Declaring a Social Security number as dead is nearly impossible to undo, doubly so now that Elon Musk and DOGE have eviscerated customer service at the agency. This action raises the prospect of the Trump Administration stealing legally earned Social Security benefits from American citizens, further proof that Trump’s promise to protect Social Security is a lie.”
CNN’s Tami Luhby contributed to this report.
