Trump administration abused Death Master File to purge at least 6,300 Social Security numbers–including children and seniors
ICYMI: Senator Murray on Vote Against Social Security Nominee, Releases New WA State Report on How Trump and Elon Are Breaking the Social Security Administration
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR), and 10 Senate colleagues in slamming the Social Security Administration (SSA) for transferring thousands of Social Security numbers associated with immigrants to 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 several federal laws and bedrock constitutional rights. The Trump administration’s actions violate their due process rights enshrined in the Constitution, falsify government records, and violate the Privacy Act, wrote the senators. Even Trump’s lawyers reportedly agreed that Social Security’s actions violated the Privacy Act.
“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,” the senators wrote in the letters to Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek and Social Security Assistant Inspector General for Audit Michelle Anderson.
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 their SSNs nullified through this process can get it fixed if there is a mistake.
The Trump administration’s abuse of Social Security’s centerpiece role in America’s economy sets a dangerous precedent of allowing the government to rip away workers’ access to their earned Social Security benefits while threatening the security of all Americans.
“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,” the senators concluded in one of their letters to SSA.
In addition to Murray and Wyden, the letter was signed by Senators Peter Welch (D-VT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Angus King (I-ME), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR).
A PDF of the letter to SSA Acting Commissioner Dudek is available HERE.
A PDF of the letter to SSA Assistant Inspector General for Audit Anderson is available HERE.
Yesterday, Senator Murray released a new report featuring testimonials from Washington state residents—including employees at the Social Security Administration who were recently fired through no fault of their own—and detailing how the Trump administration’s wide-ranging attacks on SSA risk depriving Washingtonians of the Social Security benefits they have earned and deserve. More than 73 million Americans, including 1.4 million—or one in six—people in Washington state rely on Social Security benefits. Half of seniors nationwide rely on Social Security for most of their income, and a quarter of seniors rely on Social Security for at least 90 percent of their income.
Senator Murray has an extensive record of protecting Social Security benefits and fighting to secure essential funding for the Social Security Administration—and she has been tirelessly raising the alarm about the threat Elon Musk’s DOGE poses to Americans’ hard-earned benefits. In March, Senator Murray held a press conference to lift up the stories of SSA employees who are being pushed out by Elon Musk through no fault of their own and hear from Washington state residents who rely on Social Security. In February, Murray released a fact sheet warning of the Trump administration’s plans to make it harder for Americans who’ve paid into Social Security to get the benefits they have earned.
Under Senator Murray’s leadership as Chair last Congress, the Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a draft Fiscal Year 2025 Appropriations Bill that would have provided a $509 million increase for SSA this year. Millions of Americans rely on Social Security and have earned benefits over lifetimes of work. Senator Murray also helped pass the Social Security Fairness Act at the end of 2024, which restored full Social Security benefits for public servants, including firefighters, law enforcement officers, teachers, and other state and local government workers—in January, Murray held a roundtable discussion in Everett with local union members on the implementation of the law.
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