The Trump administration has reportedly added more than 6,000 immigrants to the official US database of deceased Social Security recipients, effectively severing their access to vital government benefits and restricting their ability to work or live normally in the country.
According to US media reports on Thursday, the individuals were placed on the so-called “death file” — a federal database intended to record the deaths of Social Security beneficiaries — as part of a broader effort to pressure undocumented migrants to leave the United States. The Washington Post cited a White House official who said the move was designed to escalate the administration’s immigration clampdown.
This policy is the latest in a series of controversial measures undertaken since Donald Trump began his second term in office. These include the deportation of over 200 suspected gang members to a notoriously harsh prison in El Salvador, and an increasing focus on restricting access to federal services for those without legal immigration status.
Social Security Numbers (SSNs) serve as a crucial identification tool in the United States, used not only for reporting earnings and accessing public benefits but also for employment, banking, and rental agreements. While many undocumented immigrants — including those who arrived during the Biden era under temporary entry programmes — possess valid SSNs, being marked as “deceased” in the system would render those identifiers unusable.
The Post reported that once a person is added to the death file, they are likely to be automatically rejected by employers, landlords, banks and federal agencies — effectively cutting them off from participating in daily life and forcing them into economic isolation.
The controversial move is believed to have been developed under the guidance of staff from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a Trump-era initiative now led by tech magnate Elon Musk. According to New York Times sources, the first group of 6,300 affected individuals included those labelled as “convicted criminals and suspected terrorists.”
However, both newspapers indicated that the programme may be expanded to include a far larger number of undocumented immigrants, sparking concerns among human rights organisations and immigration advocates.
The decision to weaponise the Social Security database follows another controversial measure announced earlier in the week, in which the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) began sharing taxpayer data with immigration authorities.
Many undocumented migrants have long contributed to US federal programmes such as Social Security through tax payments — often in hopes of strengthening future legalisation efforts. Advocates argue that by targeting these individuals, the administration is punishing those who have attempted to participate in the system lawfully.
