In a controversial and sweeping act, the twelfth of November saw the Social Security Administration (SSA) declare over six thousand living immigrants dead. Instigated by the Trump administration’s directive, this means that those individuals have now been included in the SSA’s “Death Master File,” which registers the deaths of individuals with Social Security numbers.
This classification has a severe impact: once listed as dead, these individuals have their Social Security numbers cancelled. This means no access to vital financial services, including jobs, banking, and public benefits.
Targeted at legally admitted immigrants
According to the New York Times and Reuters, affected immigrants had entered the United States lawfully. Still, later DHS revoked their temporary status, citing either criminal records or a position on the terrorist watch list. A White House official confirmed this account regarding justification for the unprecedented action.
Nonetheless, critics warn that there may be loopholes in this process. Advocates fear that legal residents could be mistakenly declared dead, thereby cutting them off from life-sustaining benefits without due process.
Elon Musk’s department involved
The Department of Government Efficiency—an office established during the Trump administration under billionaire Elon Musk—was allegedly implicated in the data reclassification. The particulars of the department’s involvement are scant, but The New York Times and The Washington Post have both confirmed its role in what they describe as an initiative to improve government efficiency on a broader scale.
White House: Strategy to encourage “self-deportation”
In her USA TODAY statement defending the decision, White House spokesperson Liz Huston reiterated a connection to President Trump’s long-held immigration agenda. “President Trump promised mass deportations,” she commented. “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.”
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Advocates and lawmakers sound the alarm
The move greatly alarmed immigration policy academic Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council, who expressed his concerns on X, formerly Twitter. “There has never been a move like this. “He articulates, The enormity of problems it could create for people and the chance for huge error is an understatement. If the data is flawed, legal residents could be declared dead.”
Democratic lawmakers have issued their own objections. Representatives Richard Neal (D-Mass.) and John Larson (D-Conn.) accused the administration of circumventing due process in a joint statement. Those residents targeted “aren’t afforded due process,” they said. “If they cancel the Social Security number of one person, where do they stop?”
Part of broader anti-immigration push
With the return of the spotlight, Trump has increased his tough-on-immigration rhetoric, which includes the administration recently shutting down the humanitarian parole program, proposed under President Biden, that allowed more than 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela into the U.S. temporarily.
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This most recent foray into curtailing access to benefits with the SSA is simply another controversial chapter in Trump’s ever-changing immigration-downsizing saga.
