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Greg Pearre, who oversaw a staff of hundreds of tech experts, had pushed back on the #Trump admin’s plan to move the migrants’ names into a #SocialSecurity death database, eliminating their ability to legally earn wages &, ofcls hoped, spurring them to leave the country. In particular, Pearre had clashed w/Scott Coulter, the new chief info officer installed by #ElonMusk. Pearre told Coulter that the plan was #illegal, #cruel & risked declaring the wrong people dead.…

But his objections did not go over well w/ #Trump political appointees. And so on Thurs, the security guards in Pearre’s office told him it was time to leave.

They walked Pearre out of the building, capping a momentous internal battle over the novel strategy—pushed by #Musk’s #DOGE & #DHS — to add thousands of immigrants ranging in age from teenagers to octogenarians to the agency’s Death Master File. The dataset is used by govt agencies, employers, banks & landlords…

The episode also followed earlier warnings from senior #SocialSecurity ofcls that the database was insecure & could be easily edited without proof of death—a vulnerability, staffers say, that the #Trump admin has now exploited.

The warnings & Pearre’s removal have not previously been reported.

This account of how the #Trump admin pushed #SocialSecurity to wrongly declare thousands of living immigrants dead is based on interviews w/15 people, including current & former Social Security ofcls, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, as well as more than two dozen pages of records obtained by WaPo.

Experts in govt, consumer rights & #immigration #law said the #Trump admin’s action is illegal. Labeling people dead strips them of the #privacy protections granted to living individuals—& knowingly classifying living people as dead counts as falsifying govt records. This is in addition to the #harm inflicted on those declared dead,who become unable to legally earn a living wage or draw benefits… #SocialSecurity itself has acknowledged that an incorrect death declaration is a “devastating” blow.

…Staffers at #SocialSecurity began raising the alarm about the urgent need to address a flaw in the agency’s deaths database in Feb….

Anybody granted the appropriate permissions within Social Security could mark someone as dead, employees realized, w/o having to prove their demise in any way — e.g. by referencing…a death certificate. In emails & meetings that rose up the management chain, employees warned that the dataset was vulnerable to manipulation….

Employees’ fear was partly that a bad actor who gained access…could label groups of living individuals as dead to target them for punishment….Some of those raising the alarm worried specifically that the #Trump admin might try to use the database to go after people Trump dislikes….

Management indicated they were looking into the matter & exploring a proposed solution that would have required some additional proof of death before placing them into the Death Master File….

But no solution was enacted.

Entry into the Death Master File has potentially severe consequences, effectively erasing a person’s ability to live & draw wages in the US, acc/to Jim Francis, a consumer law attorney. Francis—who recently sued #SocialSecurity for mistakenly labeling a MD woman dead—noted that the agency sells its death info to creditors, pension companies, life insurers & credit reporting firms.

…Around the same time #SocialSecurity staff were warning that the agency’s ability to declare deaths could be exploited, #DHS & #DOGE arrived…. Soon, reps of both groups were hunting for ways to repurpose…databases to identify & deport…immigrants.

A small staff of career employees was assigned to work w/ #Musk’s team on the project….They were concerned that they might be facilitating something illegal, asking…if they were at risk of going to jail for the work they were doing….

By March, #DOGE’s focus on #immigration issues was clear…. DOGE reps were asking a lot of questions about which kinds of address, wage & tax data they could access, & how that information could be used to determine citizenship status, the people said.

One official chose to resign rather than remain involved in what he saw as an illegal attempt to repurpose the agency for immigration enforcement.

It was not the first time that #Trump ofcls sought to make #SocialSecurity hand over some of the government’s most sensitive personally identifiable information to facilitate #deportations. During Trump’s first term, a White House aide requested the names & Social Security numbers of employers thought to have hired undocumented immigrants….
At the time, the general counsel’s office at Social Security said no. They had determined such a search would be a fishing expedition…& would break the #law…

No such resistance emerged this time.

In recent weeks, #DHS’s requests shifted, acc/to a senior #SocialSecurity ofcl. #Immigration agents began meeting w/ #DOGE reps at the agency to discuss how they could achieve their larger goal of pushing out tens of thousands of migrants that #ICE was struggling to apprehend & deport, the official said.

That request soon morphed into the idea of placing immigrants into the deaths database….

#LelandDudek — the acting commissioner who was elevated from a low-level position after displaying public loyalty to #DOGE — had qualms about the task, acc/to 2 people with knowledge of his thinking. He thought it was illegal, the people said.

Then #DHS Secy #KristiNoem intervened — & Dudek agreed to move forward.

On Monday, acc/to 4 people familiar with the matter, Dudek signed 2 memorandums with Noem allowing the database action.…

The next day, 6,100 mostly Hispanic names & their attached #SocialSecurity numbers were added to the Death Master File, acc/to records reviewed by The Post.

The #Trump White House told WaPo that the ~6k immigrants all have links to either terrorist activity or criminal records. [yeah right. a) no way did they bother investigating & b) we saw who they’ve labeled criminal/terrorists w/the #ElSalvador flights] The official did not provide evidence of the alleged crimes or terrorist ties…

The ofcl said *some* are included on an FBI terror watch list.

The immigrants added to the death database include a 13-yr-old, a 14-yr-old & two 16-yr-olds—as well as one person in their 80s & a handful in their 70s….

Agency staff have since checked the names & #SocialSecurity numbers of some of the youngest immigrants against data the agency typically uses to search for criminal history & found NO EVIDENCE of crimes or law enforcement interactions, staffers said.

Among the people targeted were immigrants w/valid #SocialSecurity numbers who had lost legal status, such as those who participated in #Biden work programs that ended under the #Trump admin….

Within #SocialSecurity, the general counsel’s office is preparing an opinion that will find the Trump admin’s unprecedented use of the death database a violation of #privacy #law…. The opinion will take issue w/the agency knowingly & falsely declaring that living people are dead….

On Fri, a group of unions & an advocacy org suing the #SocialSecurity Administration argued in a new court filing that the agency had violated a temporary restraining order blocking #DOGE from the agency’s systems w/personally identifiable information by adding names to the deaths database.

Meanwhile, the effort to move immigrants who are alive into the deaths database is proceeding. On Thurs, Social Security added 102 names, records show.

@Nonilex we need to figure out hacks, too.

@peterbrown

In a not insane administration, it’s often from cross reference with information from state death records. Remember, the federal government doesn’t actually handle those types of vital records. It’s state governments, often at the county level, that does. So, in our dual sovereignty country, the information comes from there and accidental placement is often due to errors, mistakes, or ambiguities in that information (which are actually exceedingly rare statistically, particularly in light of the number of deaths a year in the country).

@Nonilex

@Bam @Nonilex it would appear that the policy is entirely deliberate https://masto.ai/@Nonilex/114325177977537157

@peterbrown

I think you may have misunderstood my comment, which was prefaced with “not in an insane administration.” I’m not talking about this insanity. I was explaining how the mistakes happen in the past. HTH.

@Nonilex