The Trump administration has backed away from a maneuver in which it sought to classify thousands of living immigrants as dead in a critical Social Security database, part of a strategy to pressure them to self-deport.
In April, the Social Security Administration placed roughly 6,300 migrants whose legal status had been revoked on its “death master file,” a vital data set that gets distributed to banks, lenders and other financial institutions.
Those placed on the list had lawfully obtained Social Security numbers when they gained temporary legal status. Their classification as dead sparked an outcry among immigrant and beneficiary advocates, who said the move amounted to the falsification of federal data and went far beyond the scope of the agency’s mission.
Being added to the death master file carries huge implications: It essentially shuts down someone’s financial life, potentially leading to bank accounts, credit cards and mortgages being canceled.
But now the Social Security Administration has reversed course, taking them off the list in a process known internally as being “resurrected,” according to S.S.A. and White House officials.
Instead, the Social Security numbers of the 6,300 migrants are being flagged as “unverified” in a system typically used by financial institutions to check the numbers. The website generates that response when a person’s Social Security number, name or date of birth do not match the agency’s records. That classification is typically used when a Social Security number may be fraudulent, erroneous or mistakenly associated with someone.
The system, which is designed to be used by companies that offer banking, credit checks and other services, is not for verifying citizenship, according to its website.
The new approach was spearheaded by Frank Bisignano, the new commissioner of the agency who took over in May, according to an administration official. It comes after the initial decision to put migrants on the death list generated enormous controversy within the agency. At one meeting shortly after the decision was made, senior level S.S.A. officials had voiced widespread “policy, legal and data integrity” concerns about the approach, according to an email summarizing the meeting viewed by The New York Times.
“The Social Security Administration is executing President Trump’s America First agenda and continuing to help encourage illegal aliens to self-deport,” Mr. Bisignano said in a statement. “With this classification, Social Security numbers for illegal aliens will be unverifiable — stopping access to their benefits and blocking their ability to defraud and abuse our system meant strictly for American citizens.”
An administration official familiar with the change said it would still achieve the same goal as placing the migrants on the death list by alerting third parties that they may not be eligible for benefits or services.
The original move to classify migrants as dead came as a team from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency rattled the Social Security Administration with a series of aggressive changes. An investigation by The Times found that many of the moves pushed by Musk aides were driven by misinformation and false claims about fraud.
After the initial use of the death list, S.S.A. officials considered expanding its use to include more than 500,000 additional migrants whose legal status is being revoked, according to documents reviewed by The Times and people familiar with the conversations. But that has not transpired, according to those people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.
Trump administration officials previously asserted, without providing evidence, that the 6,300 people who had been put on the list had criminal records or were suspected terrorists.
Nearly 1,000 of them had received federal benefits, including Medicaid, unemployment insurance and federal student loans, a White House official said previously. Those benefits were worth a total of roughly $600,000 — an average of $600 per person. Moving them onto the death list would cut them off from those benefits, the official noted.
Federal benefits are already highly restricted for many immigrant populations. Even many lawful immigrants, including green-card holders, face strict restrictions on eligibility for federal benefit programs, including food stamps, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Supplemental Security Income. They often have to wait five years to become eligible, though rules vary by state and specific status.
Social Security benefits are out of reach to undocumented workers, even if they have paid into the program (and many do). Only some lawfully present noncitizens are permitted to receive benefits.
While not as extreme as being marked dead, having a Social Security number that is not verified could still have far-reaching effects. If an individual’s legal status is revoked and their Social Security number is no longer valid, a citizen child of that person could be cut off from receiving survivor benefits on their parent’s earnings record, for example.
Individuals do not need a Social Security number to establish a bank account, nor are they required to be U.S. citizens. But if a person tries to open an account or take out a loan with a newly invalid number, it could raise red flags — or, at the very least, require them to come up with alternative forms of documentation to prove their identity.
“Invalidating a person’s Social Security number makes it harder for S.S.A. to lawfully implement Social Security, and also makes it harder for affected people to do things they could otherwise lawfully do, like access the money in their bank accounts,” said Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The Social Security Administration is required to establish and maintain a complete wage record once a person is authorized to work, policy experts said. The agency generally has not invalidated numbers in the past, and only did so if they had been exploited by fraudsters and a new number had been issued to a victim of identity theft, for example. Noncitizens kept their numbers even if their work status had lapsed.
An S.S.A. official said the agency would maintain accurate wage information, and earnings would be credited to the individual’s Social Security number.
Even before the administration decided to resurrect the 6,300 migrants, nearly 300 of them had already been taken off the death list after going into field offices and proving they were still living, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it.
But others were turned away. In April, a Venezuelan woman came to a Florida field office and asked to be resurrected, according to a document reviewed by The Times. She was told she could not be. The woman had received a work authorization permit that was then revoked, and she was added to the death list.
Alexandra Berzon is an investigative reporter covering American politics and elections for The Times.
Tara Siegel Bernard writes about personal finance for The Times, from saving for college to paying for retirement and everything in between.
Nicholas Nehamas is a Washington correspondent for The Times, focusing on the Trump administration and its efforts to transform the federal government.
The post Social Security Backs Off Listing Living Migrants as Dead appeared first on New York Times.
