Social Security numbers canceled for thousands, migrants listed as dead: NYT

The Trump administration is reportedly looking to revoke the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants

They were allowed into the country and allowed to stay as part of actions by the Biden administration

The move allowed migrants to avoid crossing the border illegally, and they were given Social Security numbers and in some cases federal benefits

The New York Times reports that the Trump administration is now urging those with such temporary legal status to self-deport

The report says the administration is repurposing Social Security's so-called Death Master file

The file has been used to track dead people who no longer should receive benefits

Instead, this new tactic entails including the names of living people who the government will treat as dead

As a result of winding up on this list, a person would lose the possibility of getting a Social Security number in the United States

and thus a key form of identity that allows them to earn money

The report indicates more than 6,300 names of migrants who had temporary legal status but were either on a government terror watch list or had FBI criminal records were added to the list this week and had their status revoked

A White House official reportedly saying nearly 1 of the migrants had received federal benefits worth about including Medicaid unemployment and student loans that are now cut off

The acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Leland Dudek, reportedly sent an email to staff saying their financial lives are terminated

Back in February, Dudek agreed to provide the Department of Homeland Security

with the last known addresses of nearly 100,000 people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement

ICE has been conducting raids and roundups in various parts of the country since Donald Trump took office

By using Social Security data to freeze out certain immigrants, the Times reports that Trump is undoing what he believes was the Biden open borders policy

Critics fear the enforcement role involving Social Security could result in people

including American citizens, mistakenly winding up on the list. A senior Social Security official for George W. Bush's administration told the Times

the potential for errors can be very consequential. While White House spokeswoman Elizabeth Houston said

President Trump promised mass deportations, and by removing the monetary incentives to stay

it will encourage them to self-deport. For more unbiased updates, download the Straight Arrow News app