The Trump administration is reportedly escalating its tactics to revoke the temporary legal status of immigrants allowed into the U.S. under the Biden administration. The latest effort includes adding migrants who are here lawfully to Social Security Administration’s “death master file,” effectively blacklisting them from the U.S. financial system, the New York Times reports.
Sources including family members, funeral homes, financial institutions, and more report deaths in the U.S. to Social Security, which the agency records in the so-called death master file database. Once there, outside financial and medical agencies as well as other governmental agencies are notified, and banking and financial institutions scour the list themselves to prevent identity theft.
The Trump administration hopes that adding migrants to this list—which will cut them off from most financial services—will make them more likely to “self-deport,” the Times reports. These Social Security numbers were legally obtained under a program created by President Joe Biden, which gave some migrants temporary legal status in the U.S. that allowed them to work.
“The goal is to cut those people off from using crucial financial services like bank accounts and credit cards, along with their access to government benefits,” the Times reports.
More than 6,000 people were added earlier this week. The Trump administration says the migrants who have been added are convicted criminals and “suspected terrorists,” the Times reports, although the list included minors. But current and former SSA employees told the Times they are concerned that erroneous data could mean others are improperly placed on the list, including Americans citizens.
The Social Security Administration and the White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Being added to the master file has ripple effects throughout someone’s entire life: Their medical insurance benefits or Medicare coverage can be halted, credit cards can be cancelled, and pensions can be lost. They can lose access to their bank accounts and even their homes, as well as government benefits from agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, and so on.
This is not the first time Social Security’s death master file has become politicized by the Trump administration. Earlier this year, advisor Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency made claims that SSA is paying tens of thousands of people who are over 100 years old, using that as proof that the agency needs an overhaul. SSA denies these inaccuracies.
Also this week, the Trump administration made moves to share long off-limits IRS data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to identify and deport undocumented immigrants. Several top officials at the IRS resigned as a result, including the acting commissioner. Undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
