Headline Roundup • April 15th, 2025
Social Security Declares 6,300 Migrants ‘Dead’ As Part of Trump’s Deportation Effort
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The Social Security Administration (SSA) moved 6,300 migrants who illegally entered the United States and have criminal or terror watch records with the FBI to a list of deceased names.
The Details: The Department of Homeland Security reportedly found the migrants, who were granted temporary parole by the Biden administration, to pose threats to national security. The move appears to be part of the Trump administration’s deportation efforts.
For Context: The SSA’s “Ineligibility Master List” includes over 94 million records dating back to 1936 and tracks Social Security numbers of the deceased. A person’s Social Security or Tax ID number is revoked once added to the list, meaning they can’t collect benefits. Federal data has shown that 590,000 noncitizens received Social Security numbers in the fiscal year 2022 and 964,000 in 2023.
How The Media Covered It: Outlets across the spectrum highlighted the move as part of Trump’s deportation efforts, though outlets from the left framed it more as weaponization. The Washington Post (Lean Left bias) interviewed anonymous staffers who were critical of the move. Axios (Lean Left) wrote, “Getting on this list can wreak havoc on someone’s life.” Fox News (Right) highlighted the perspective of a conservative think tank that said Trump is using “every tool in the box” to quell unauthorized migration.
Written by the AllSides staff (of humans). Learn more. Support our mission.
Featured Coverage of this Story
Two days after the Social Security Administration purposely and falsely labeled 6,100 living immigrants as dead, security guards arrived at the office of a well-regarded senior executive in the agency’s Woodlawn, Maryland, headquarters.
Greg Pearre, who oversaw a staff of hundreds of technology experts, had pushed back on the Trump administration’s plan to move the migrants’ names into a Social Security death database, eliminating their ability to legally earn wages and, officials hoped, spurring them to leave the country. In particular, Pearre had clashed with Scott Coulter, the new chief information...
More than 6,300 migrants who are authorized to work in the United States have been moved to a Social Security Administration list of people who have died after officials deemed them to pose security threats or as wanted by federal law enforcement agencies.
A White House official confirmed to NewsNation that the immigrants who were transferred to the SSA’s Ineligible Master File (previously known as the Death Master File) were found by the Department of Homeland Security to be on the terrorist watch list or to have FBI criminal records. All of...
Getty Images
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has become the latest government agency to join President Donald Trump’s deportation push, showing the president’s whole-of-government approach to keeping a key campaign promise.
"This is the Trump administration using every tool it has in its toolbox to crack down on illegal immigration," Tom Jones, the executive director of the American Accountability Foundation, told Fox News Digital.
The comments come as the SSA sifts through the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who are in the country under "temporary parole" status that was granted during the Biden administration and allowed...
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