Durbin, Wyden, Senate Democrats Urge Social Security Administration To Reverse Decision To Maliciously & Illegally List Immigrants As "Dead"
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) today led a group of fourteen Senate Democrats in condemning and urging reversal of the Social Security Administration’s recent decision to list certain immigrants as “dead” in the master files.
The Senators began by condemning the decision, writing: “We write to strongly object to the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) apparent decision to list living noncitizens as ‘dead’ in the agency’s master files. These arbitrary actions—intended to weaponize Social Security in the Administration’s attack on immigrants—are disgraceful and will erode the integrity of and trust in Social Security.”
The Senators then highlighted the departure from previous uses of SSA master files, writing: “SSA collects death records from families, financial institutions, and government agencies and compiles them into death master files, which the agency then shares with certain federal agencies, banks, credit bureaus, and other financial institutions to prevent improper payments to people who have died or those fraudulently seeking to impersonate someone who is deceased. In fact, the death master files help to prevent more than $50 million in improper payments each month. However, it appears that SSA is now using the death master files for another purpose: a weapon against living noncitizens.”
The Senators further elaborated on the reported malicious intent of this designation, writing: “In April, the New York Times reported SSA maliciously has listed living noncitizens as ‘dead’ in its death master files. These noncitizens were lawfully present and granted work authorization by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), making them eligible for Social Security numbers (SSNs) to work and contribute to our nation. SSNs allow noncitizens to participate in the economy by obtaining housing, bank accounts, and insurance. Their work helps to boost the United States’ Gross Domestic Product by trillions of dollars. But now, these noncitizens will no longer have access to their own financial resources because SSA has taken the unprecedented action of declaring them ‘dead’ in a cruel and Orwellian attempt to force them to leave the United States.”
The Senators continued by highlighting incorrect designations of living, legal immigrants as “dead” without a chance to appeal, writing: “According to an internal memo, DHS claims that these noncitizens are ‘criminals’ and ‘suspected terrorists.’ But it is clear that the Trump Administration is not conducting sufficient administrative checks to ensure this is the case, considering DHS’ apparent incompetence in Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s mistaken deportation to El Salvador. In fact, according to press reports, most of the more than 6,000 noncitizens declared ‘dead’ were lawfully authorized to be in the United States and lawfully obtained SSNs … Further, SSA has no authority to erroneously categorize living noncitizens as ‘dead’ in its death master files. Such use of the death master files raises the question of whether SSA may list other living legal immigrants—or even American citizens—as ‘dead’ in the death master files without justification. It should frighten every American that SSA could make the unilateral decision to ruin their financial lives without even a chance to appeal.”
The Senators concluded by denouncing misinformation spread by President Trump regarding Social Security and urging reversal of SSA’s decision, writing: “In his Joint Address to Congress in March, President Trump claimed there were people over the age of 300 receiving Social Security benefits, simply because some of the death master files lacked a recorded death date. His assertion was not true, and SSA’s actions now are turning this tool to prevent fraud into one that instead facilitates it. We urge SSA not to use the death master files in this manner and to remove noncitizens falsely listed as “dead” from the files.”
In addition to Durbin and Wyden, the letter is signed by U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Peter Welch (D-VT).
A PDF of the letter to SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano is available here.
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