Immigrants prove they are alive, forcing Social Security to undo death label
Source: Washington Post
April 18, 2025 at 12:43 p.m. EDT
Immigrants falsely labeled dead by the Social Security Administration are showing up at field offices with documents proving they are alive, leading staff to reinstate nearly three dozen people over the past week, according to records obtained by The Washington Post.
The immigrants who have requested a reversal and been reinstated in Social Security databases include a Haitian asylum seeker and a minor child, the records show. Some immigrants have shown up with drivers licenses and work permits to prove their legitimacy, the records show. Others have arrived bearing letters of notification that they received from their states declaring them dead.
The reversals come after the Department of Homeland Security and Elon Musks U.S. DOGE Service pushed to incorrectly label roughly 6,100 mostly Latino immigrants as dead in a bid to pressure the immigrants to leave the country. The administration overrode the objections of senior Social Security staff to labeling the immigrants as dead a move that current and former top officials at the agency warned was illegal because it violates privacy laws and involves the purposeful falsification of government records. The White House and Social Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
The request to label immigrants dead came from the very top of Homeland Security, The Washington Post previously reported. Secretary Kristi L. Noem signed two memorandums of agreement this month with acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek authorizing and facilitating the placement of the immigrants in Social Securitys Death Master File.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/18/immigrants-dead-social-security-alive/
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Eugene
(64,424 posts)This kind of evil just screams "Stephen Miller."
Marcuse
(8,299 posts)Solly Mack
(94,787 posts)AllaN01Bear
(24,753 posts)piddyprints
(14,924 posts)Happened on the exact day I was to get my first pension check. It was "pending" on Friday, to be deposited the following Monday. When I logged in, I watched it get deposited and immediately clawed back. It took 3 months to finally get back on schedule after countless phone calls and letters to customer service CEOs of the pension fund managers and the company I worked for.
Turns out that anyone can call with your first and last name, of which mine are quite common, and tell them you have died. Apparently, at the time, no SS number or birth date was required. And they don't call to see if you're dead because, if you were dead you wouldn't answer your phone and it would be fraud if you did... or some kind of double talk.
I asked why it took a New York minute to grab the money, but 3 months to get it all straightened out. Well, they just don't have a set of procedures for bringing people back to life. I suggested they make damn sure the person has died, like maybe verifying SS number and birth date? Now, with all this bullshit going on with DOGE, I worry every month that this sort of nightmare will happen again.
I just hope these people don't have to go through that kind of red tape to get their SS benefits back. Just having to show up at a field office these days is ridiculous. I wish them all the best of luck... and FUCK everyone responsible for this nightmare!
IronLionZion
(48,488 posts)there's plenty of that going on right now with social security and DOGE. News has spoken with plenty of retired people DOGE declared dead who turned out to be alive. It does take a while to sort out with fewer workers and offices. That's deliberate of course.
louis-t
(24,237 posts)and they are dead."