In the News

The White House acknowledged Friday reclassifying more than 6,000 living immigrants with temporary status and legal Social Security numbers as dead in an effort to force them to “self deport.”

It’s a move U.S. Reps. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, and John B. Larson, D-Connecticut, likened it to “digital murder” after it was first reported Thursday by the New York Times.

Without Social Security numbers, immigrants could be effectively forced out of the country, unable to work or bank. “It’s outrageous and flies in the face of every American law and value to weaponize Social Security like this,” Neal and Larson, both members of the House Ways & Means Committee overseeing Social Security, wrote. “(President Donald) Trump and (Elon) Musk feel they are above the law, while at the same time, the residents being targeted aren’t being afforded due process. As they continue to gut the Social Security Administration, it could take years for the victims to get restitution, if at all.”

Larson and Neal called on Musk, and his DOGE organization, to testify before the Committee.

Laurie Millman, executive director of the Center for New Americans in Northampton, said the move is meant to sow fear, confusion. It hopes to respond with calm, next steps.

“What is clear is that the administration is doing everything in their power to make the U.S. unwelcoming to immigrants,” Millman said. “It doesn’t appear that they are considering the local economy, which depends on immigrants for workers in health care, manufacturing, other service industries where immigrants fill vital roles.”

A Trump administration official said the SSA moved roughly 6,300 immigrants’ names and Social Security numbers to a database that federal officials normally use to track the deceased after the Department of Homeland Security identified them as temporarily paroled aliens on the terrorist watch list or with FBI criminal records.

The administration has not provided evidence of this assertion.

The SSA maintains the most complete federal database of individuals who have died, known as the Death Master File. It contains more than 142 million records going back to 1899.

In its latest move, the White House has taken to referring to it as the “Ineligible Master File.”

Effective April 8, Customs and Border Patrol terminated parole for all these individuals with written notice to each of them, the Trump administration official said. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and discussed the development on condition of anonymity.

Devin O’Connor, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said that the move is unprecedented and that never before have people been deliberately added to death rolls when they are still alive.

“The administration is saying they have the right to declare someone as dead when they have not died — where is the oversight here?" O’Connor asked. “And what happens when they make a mistake?”

Former Social Security Administrator Martin O’Malley told The Associated Press, “The police state is here, now.” The administration’s latest move violates privacy rules meant to protect everyone’s personal data, he said.

Associated Press reports were included.