Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) goons at the Social Security Administration were forced to resurrect dozens of immigrants from the dead over the past week.
Elon Musk’s engineers had carried out a scheme to falsely list more than 6,000 immigrants as dead in a Social Security database known as the “death master file,” The Washington Post reported last week. Entry into the file cuts a person off from key financial services, such as receiving benefits and accessing a bank account.
As part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration, the goal was to pressure the migrants to “self deport,” The New York Times reported.
Now, almost three dozen of the immigrants have protested the move, demonstrated that they are alive, and won a victory: They are no longer listed among the deceased, the Post reported Friday.
The immigrants, who include a Haitian refugee and a child, have shown up at Social Security offices with driver’s licenses, work orders, and letters from their states declaring them dead.
While Musk’s team was planning the move over the last few months, senior staffers at Social Security had expressed concern that it was illegal, the Post reported. But the change was pushed through anyway by the agency’s Trump-loyal chief, Leland Dudek, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
The Post reported that one top IT official was physically removed from his office by security officers after he voiced concerns about the plan.
The White House, which didn’t immediately answer the Daily Beast’s request for comment, argued to the Post that the file wasn’t actually for dead people.
“This reporting is false. These illegal aliens were never classified as dead,” spokesperson Liz Huston told the paper. “The ‘Death Master File’ was renamed the ‘Ineligible Master File’ prior to their names being transferred. Once U.S. Customs and Border Protection terminated their parole, these individuals were no longer eligible for benefits, and Social Security Administration quickly took action to protect the benefits of hardworking American citizens.”
However, the paper pushed back on the White House’s claims. The Post said that both a White House official and a Social Security official had previously confirmed that the immigrants were labeled as dead.
It also reported that, as of Friday, the file was still referred to as the “death master file” in Social Security’s internal systems and on its website.
