Thousands of immigrants classified dead by Trump

PARIS: The Trump administration has added over 6,000 immigrants to a database of dead Social Security recipients, effectively cutting off benefits and their ability to work, US media reported on Friday.Adding the immigrants to the so-called “death file” is “aimed at putting pressure on the undocumented immigrants to leave the country,” the Washington Post said, citing a White House official.

The policy aligns with other high-profile anti-immigration measures taken by Donald Trump´s White House since his second term began, including sending more than 200 suspected gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

Social Security Numbers (SSNs) are a key identifier for people in the United States, used to report earnings, establish eligibility for welfare benefits and other purposes. Hundreds of thousands of people who are in the country illegally nevertheless have a US Social Security Number.

Many arrived during the Biden administration, which allowed certain people to enter temporarily as a way of reducing illegal border crossings. The White House official told the Washington Post that once people are listed as dead in the Social Security system, they will be shut out by many employers, landlords and banks as well as federal agencies -- essentially ending their ability to earn a living in the country.

Media reported that the move to use the “death file” was spearheaded by staff from Elon Musk´s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Citing administration documents, the New York Times reported that the initial group of 6,300 people was made up of “convicted criminals and ´suspected terrorists.´”

But both papers reported that the measure could soon be applied to many more undocumented migrants. Weaponizing the Social Security system against undocumented migrants follows steps taken to share taxpayer information from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with immigration authorities announced on Tuesday.

Millions of undocumented migrants have long paid taxes as a way of boosting both their immigration cases and the financial health of massive US federal programs such as Social Security. Critics of the plan say it would “debank” lawfully-admitted immigrants.

The scheme was first reported by The New York Times, who reported that the goal of the Trump administration is to coerce migrants to self-deport by effectively cancelling their Social Security numbers and cutting them off from financial services.

“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,” Assistant Press Secretary Liz Huston said in a statement, without directly addressing the plan.