May 08, 2025

ICYMI: Warren, Wyden, Senators Slam Social Security for Improperly Declaring Thousands Dead, Call for Watchdog Investigation

Trump administration abused Death Master File to purge at least 6,300 Social Security numbers, including children and seniors

Letter to SSA Acting Commissioner | Letter to SSA Assistant Inspector General for Audit 

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), along with Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and 11 Senate Democrats, slammed the Social Security Administration (SSA) for transferring thousands of Social Security numbers associated with immigrants to the SSA’s Death Master File, marking them as dead to pressure “self-deportation,” and demanded the agency’s watchdog launch a full investigation into the decision.

Exploiting Social Security’s Death Master File to terminate the SSN of living individuals without full due process violates bedrock constitutional rights. The Trump administration’s actions, which amount to falsifying government records, also violate the Privacy Act. Even Trump’s lawyers reportedly agreed. 

“This decision will result in the ‘financial murder’ of living individuals improperly placed in the file, with everything from their credit cards and banking to their ability to access healthcare and housing being ripped out from under them,” wrote the senators.

The senators also called on the SSA Office of the Inspector General to launch a full investigation into the agency’s decision to begin using the Death Master File for this purpose, including how an individual gets targeted, who at the agency has decision-making authority, and how those who have had their SSNs nullified through this process can get it fixed if there is a mistake.

The Trump administration’s abuse of Social Security and its flagrant violation of constitutional guarantees of due process set a precedent that could endanger the rights of all Americans. It also undermines the accuracy of the Social Security Administration’s data, which could lead to more mistakes that limit a person’s access to benefits, regardless of their immigration status. 

“The purpose of SSA is to provide for the welfare of number-holders and their dependents, not to serve as an arm of President Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda. This move degrades the solvency, reliability, and accuracy of SSA systems and programs. It is as cruel as it is thoughtless—the impact will be felt in communities across the country and in the future of SSA programs themselves,” concluded the senators to Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek. 

The letter was signed by Senators Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai’i), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Angus King (I-Maine), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.). 

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