Has Trump declared you dead? You won't enjoy it if he does.
Last Thursday, The Trump administration placed 6,300 immigrants on Social Security's 'Death Master File.' According to Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, being listed there means 'losing your income, your health insurance, access to your bank account, your credit cards, your home, and more.'
And that is precisely the administration's goal: to find people it doesn't like and compel them to leave. It claimed, without proof, that the people they declared dead are criminals or suspected terrorists. The claim is questionable, since the list includes eight children.
So far, the only apparent commonality among the targets is that they were granted legal status during the previous administration. That's right — they are here legally. They followed the process to obtain Social Security numbers and were permitted to remain in the U.S. and work. The new administration, however, has reneged on that commitment and wants them to self-deport.
For the Trump team, commitments made by our institutions can be invalidated based on the subjective judgment of a single individual. Process doesn't matter. The law doesn't matter. The only requirement for being declared dead is your esteem in the minds of those who control the data. If that's the deciding factor, why wouldn't any of the rest of us be next?
The consequences of being on the Death Master List are dire. This affects a lot more than eligibility for Social Security benefits. Presence on the list sets in motion credit card cancellations and home loan foreclosures. It ends access to insured medical care. It means that you cannot work or apply for an apartment or open a bank account.
For example, one elderly woman who was inadvertently placed on the list in December 2023 died after months of trying to correct the error. For months, she went without the income she relied on. Her home was listed for sale and her medical insurance was cancelled, leaving her unable to afford life-saving medication. At 88, she died from the stress and consequences of being already categorized as dead. (Her family has sued the Social Security Administration earlier this month.)
If you are placed on this list — deliberately or mistakenly — you no longer exist, according to the institutional engines of our country. You may be alive, but your life will be plagued with irreversible consequences.
Who among us will be next to be economically exiled? Are you a doctor who performs abortions? A journalist who publishes unflattering articles? An attorney who has represented an adversary? Members of these classes have already been subject to harassing lawsuits by Trump or his associates. Are you gay? Muslim? A Tesla protester? All of these classes have been targets of the administration's verbal wrath.
Beyond lawsuits and threats, the administration has already punished foreign nationals residing in the U.S. by rescinding visas and deporting them without due process. And on April 14, in an Oval Office meeting with the president of El Salvador, who is being paid to imprison deportees, Trump announced that he is willing to apply his deportation tactics to American citizens as well.
'We also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways … that are absolute monsters,' Trump said. 'I'd like to include them … to get them out of the country,' he continued.
But we know violent behavior is not the real criterion. Trump's ease in pardoning Jan. 6 rioters, some of whom violently assaulted police officers, proves that it's his personal assessment that is the driving factor in who is punished and who is not.
This newest deportation weapon is an efficient means of delivering that punishment. It's swift, deadly and requires little effort. A simple digital switch can eviscerate an entire existence. Further, there has been little resistance to any of the administration's tactics, so implementation has been frictionless.
The Republican-led Congress has not voiced objection or attempted to protect residents through legislation. And the Supreme Court recently issued what sounds more like a suggestion than a ruling to return a wrongfully deported resident. Add to that the administration's overt defiance of lower court rulings, without consequence, and its path to deporting anyone it deems worthy seems unobstructed.
Criminal or not, citizen or not, we are all at risk.
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