Trump Cancels Migrants’ Social Security Numbers

The New York Times reports:

Since taking office, the Trump administration has moved aggressively to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were allowed into the country under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Now, the administration is taking drastic steps to pressure some of those immigrants and others who had legal status to “self-deport” by effectively canceling the Social Security numbers they had lawfully obtained.

The goal is to cut those people off from using crucial financial services like bank accounts and credit cards, along with their access to government benefits. The effort hinges on a surprising new tactic: repurposing Social Security’s “death master file,” which for years has been used to track dead people who should no longer receive benefits, to include the names of living people who the government believes should be treated as if they are dead.

Read the full article.

This cruel and insane policy will immediately lead to massive increases in under-the-table cash payments, black markets, illegal loan sharks preying on immigrants, and crime of all kinds.

It will *also* increase the deficit fwiw.https://t.co/AahfJpfGFa

— David Atkins (@DavidOAtkins) April 10, 2025