ICE terrorism coming to Social Security offices
Wired reported that the instructions were “recently communicated verbally to workers at certain SSA offices.”
The outlet quoted an unnamed employee with direct
knowledge of the orders who said that “if ICE comes in and asks if someone has
an upcoming appointment, we will let them know the date and time.”
Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Social Security
benefits, though they do contribute tens
of billions of dollars per year to the program through payroll taxes.
Noncitizens can qualify for Social Security, but Wired noted
that they are “required to appear in person to review continued eligibility of
benefits.”
“Social Security numbers are issued to US citizens but also to foreign students and people legally allowed to live and work in the country,” the outlet observed. “In some cases, when a child or dependent is a citizen and the family member responsible for them is not, that person might need to accompany the child or dependent to an office visit.”
The revelation that SSA workers are being told to hand over
appointment details to ICE came amid an ongoing congressional fight over
proposed reforms to the immigration agency that has resulted in a funding
lapse at the Department of Homeland Security, which has a data-sharing agreement with the Social
Security Administration.
“You’re seeing SSA becoming an extension of Homeland
Security,” Leland Dudek, the former acting commissioner for the Social Security
Administration, told Wired.
SSA is currently led by Frank Bisignano, a former financial services CEO who backed the Elon Musk-led assault on government
agencies via the Department
of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Indications that ICE has Social Security field offices in
its crosshairs as part of the Trump administration’s large-scale, lawless mass
deportation campaign sparked outrage. In a joint statement, Reps. John Larson (D-Conn.) and Richard
Neal (D-Mass.) said that “under this administration, ICE has been transformed
into Donald Trump’s secret police force—accountable to nobody.”
“They are killing Americans in our streets, sending masked
agents to snatch mothers from their children, and illegally
blocking members of Congress from even visiting their facilities,” Larson and
Neal said Friday. “Today, we were informed that ICE is attempting to infiltrate
the Social Security Administration too—using field offices to further round up
and detain people, and scaring people out of getting the benefits they need.”
“It was bad enough that Donald Trump and Kristi Noem have already used Social Security as a means to get immigrants to ‘self-deport.’ We led the effort to stop them and passed legislation to prevent them from continuing that policy,” the Democrats added. “Now, Congress needs to act to end ICE’s reign of terror in our communities and block this cruel and inhumane plan.”
