DOGE Gets Access to Sensitive Data for Millions of Migrants: What To Know
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has reportedly been granted access to sensitive immigration case data.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) gave permission to a team of six DOGE "advisors" to access the Executive Office for Immigration Review's Courts and Appeals System (ECAS) on Friday, according to documents seen by The Washington Post.
Why It Matters
ECAS includes millions of confidential records from immigration court cases, ranging from asylum claims to personal biographical information.
It is not explicitly clear what DOGE's mission with this data is but it could be part of President Donald Trump's to crack down on illegal immigration.
Newsweek has contacted the DOJ, via email, and DOGE, via direct message on X, for comment.
What To Know
Staff members at the DOJ were instructed to start preparing ECAS accounts for the DOGE team, according to The Post.
The DOGE team of six reportedly includes Marko Elez, a staffer who resigned from the government in February in the wake of a scandal over his association with a social media account that promoted racism and eugenics, which was reported by The Post at the time.
He was re-hired by Musk after the billionaire launched a poll on X asking people what they thought and after Vice President JD Vance backed the move, saying: "I don't think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life."
It comes after The Post's reports last week about DOGE, along with U.S. immigration officials, seeking to use a sensitive Medicare database as part of their crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
The database is believed to keep a record of personal information, including addresses, beneficiary information, Medicare claims and more.
White House Senior Advisor Elon Musk walks to the White House after landing in Marine One on the South Lawn with U.S. President Donald Trump (not pictured) on March 9, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump...
White House Senior Advisor Elon Musk walks to the White House after landing in Marine One on the South Lawn with U.S. President Donald Trump (not pictured) on March 9, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump was returning to the White House after spending the weekend at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida. More
Getty
What People Are Saying
The DOJ's website says: "ECAS supports the full life cycle of an immigration case including: electronic filing of court and appeals documents, processing and receiving filings, maintaining electronic Records of Proceedings (ROPs), preparing case information, conducting a hearing, and adjudicating appeals, while providing cost and time savings for all parties."
Speaking about federal entitlement programs, Musk told Fox Business: "The waste and fraud in entitlement spending—which is most of the federal spending is entitlements—so, that's, like, the big one to eliminate. That's the, sort of half-trillion, maybe $6-700 billion a year."
White House spokesperson Elizabeth Huston said in a statement: "President Trump promised mass deportations, and by removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come and stay, we will encourage them to self-deport. He is delivering on his promise he made to the American people."
What Happens Next
It is not yet completely clear what DOGE will do with ECAS data. Congressional Democrats are pushing for investigations into DOGE's operations and its handling of sensitive data.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump Blames ‘Mental Anguish and Confusion' for Rejecting $15M CBS Offer
President Donald Trump's lawyers gave a very Trump-like excuse for refusing to accept $15 million to settle his $20 billion lawsuit against CBS. The MAGA president's lawyers claimed that the 'mental anguish and confusion' he suffered from a 'deceptively edited' 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris was just too much to bear in a Wednesday filing, The Wrap reported. The interview was conducted in Oct. 2024, leading up to the 2024 presidential election in November. 'Defendants' conduct, including news distortion, constituted commercial speech which cannot by any reasonable interpretation be found to have constituted editorial judgment, and that speech damaged Plaintiffs,' Trump's lawyers argued. Instead, Trump's lawyers want CBS' parent company Paramount Global to cough up more than $25 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. 'The fact that such commercial speech was issued by a news organization does not insulate Defendants from liability under the First Amendment,' the lawyers wrote. Trump is a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit with Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, his one-time White House physician, who claims he was also 'injured' by CBS' conduct because he 'is a consumer of broadcast and digital news media content.' Paramount ripped the lawsuit as an 'an affront to the First Amendment' that is 'without basis in law or fact' in a March motion to dismiss. But the company now appears to be looking to put the conflict behind it as it attempts to push through an $8 billion merger with Skydance Media that must go through federal review under the FCC. CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon announced that she was leaving her post earlier this month after reportedly refusing to offer an apology to Trump as part of a settlement, WSJ reported. Paramount execs are also fretting over how such a potential settlement can expose them to future shareholder litigation and criminal charges for bribing a public official, a sources told the WSJ. Meanwhile other media companies and law firms have capitulated to Trump's demands in a bid to avoid being targeted by Trump's DOJ led by MAGA loyalist Pam Bondi. Meta agreed to pay $25 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit from Trump in January after the social media platform suspended his accounts following the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots. X paid $10 million to settle a similar suit the following month. Disney has also shilled out $15 million to Trump's presidential foundation and paid $1 million in legal fees to protect anchor George Stephanopoulos from further legal action from the president.
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Mexican band Grupo Firme cancels US show, saying their visas were suspended by Trump administration
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The popular Mexican regional music band Grupo Firme announced on Friday that it was canceling a performance in a music festival in California over the weekend after the United States government suspended the musicians' visas. It comes after the U.S. State Department has revoked visas of a number of Mexican musicians for playing a genre of music that it says glorifies cartel violence. The group, which has soared to international fame playing Mexican regional music, said in a statement posted on its Instagram account that the visas of them and their team are currently under 'administrative review by the U.S. Embassy" and that it would make it 'impossible' for them to perform in the La Onda Fest to be held in the city of Napa Valley, California on June 1. But the post didn't detail what it would mean in the long term for the musical group. The U.S. Embassy in Mexico said that visa cases are confidential according to U.S. law and couldn't provide more information on the case. The suspension is just the latest in a series of moves the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has taken targeting Mexican artists in the genre, who in some cases have glorified the leaders of cartels as sort of Robin Hood figures. While the genre of 'narco-corridos' has stirred controversy, much of the music also speaks to the harsh realities facing Mexican youth caught in cartel violence. Two months ago, the Mexican musical group Los Alegres del Barranco was sanctioned after it projected images of the leader of the feared Jalisco New Generation Cartel at a concert in the western state of Jalisco. 'I'm a firm believer in freedom of expression, but that doesn't mean that expression should be free of consequences,' U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said at the time. 'The last thing we need is a welcome mat for people who extol criminals and terrorists.' But Grupo Firme has taken steps in recent months to distance itself from the facet of the musical genre glorifying criminal groups, announcing in April shortly after the controversy that it would not sing such music in concerts.
CNN
19 minutes ago
- CNN
US calls for Asia allies to boost defenses in face of China's ‘imminent' threat, Hegseth tells top defense forum
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday delivered a dire warning to the Asia-Pacific region and the world: China's designs on Taiwan pose a threat to global peace and stability that requires 'our allies and partners do their part on defense.' 'There is no reason to sugarcoat it. The threat China poses is real. And it could be imminent,' Hegseth said in a speech to the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premier defense forum, in Singapore. 'Beijing is credibly preparing potentially to use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific,' with People's Liberation Army (PLA) forces training daily to take military action against Taiwan, Hegseth said. He noted that Chinese leader Xi Jinping has ordered his military to be prepared by 2027 to invade Taiwan, the democratic island of 23 million people that the Chinese Communist Party claims as its sovereign territory despite having never ruled it. 'The PLA is building the military needed to do it, training for it every day and rehearsing for the real deal,' Hegseth said, delivering some of his strongest comments against China since he took office in January. He said US President Donald Trump has pledged not to let Taiwan fall to China on his watch, and he called on US allies and partners in the region to band together to stand up to Beijing, both on the Taiwan issue and other regional disputes where China aggressively pursues its agenda, such as in the South China Sea. 'China's behavior towards its neighbors and the world is a wake-up call. And an urgent one,' the US defense chief said. But he said the US cannot deter the Chinese threat alone, calling on other nations to be 'force multipliers' against Beijing. 'We ask – and indeed, we insist – that our allies and partners do their part on defense,' he said. Hegseth urged Asian countries to increase their defense spending, pointing to NATO allies who have boosted it to 5% of gross domestic product. 'So it doesn't make sense for countries in Europe to do that while key allies in Asia spend less on defense in the face of an even more formidable threat, not to mention North Korea,' he said. While Hegseth made clear that Washington does not seek conflict with China, he stressed the Trump administration would not let aggression from Beijing stand. 'We will not be pushed out of this critical region, and we will not let our allies be subordinated and intimidated,' he said. Hegseth's speech adds to heated tensions between Washington and Beijing. China has railed against America's efforts in recent years to tighten its alliances and stiffen its defense posture in Asia, while economic frictions rose to historic levels earlier this year after Trump imposed tariffs on China, sparking a tit-for-tat between the two countries that saw duties rise to more than 100% on each other's goods. The annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore has in the past been a place where defense leaders from the US and China can meet on the sidelines and foster at least a minimal dialogue between the two foes. No such meeting is expected to take place this year. China announced on Thursday that it would send only a low-level delegation from its National Defense University to Shangri-La, rather than its defense minister, who has spoken at the past five forums. When the International Institute for Strategic Studies, which sponsors the event, belatedly released a speakers list for the forum on Friday afternoon, the usual 8:30 a.m. time slot for a Chinese representative to speak was scrubbed from the agenda. At a Chinese Defense Ministry press conference on Thursday, a spokesperson ducked a question on why Beijing was not sending its defense minister to the forum. China was 'open to communication at all levels between the two sides,' a ministry spokesperson said, when asked about a potential sidelines meeting with the US delegation. Hegseth's call for allied cooperation in deterring China is a carryover from the Biden administration, but the Trump administration seems more strident than its predecessor. Ahead of the Singapore conference, there was broad consensus among analysts that unlike the turmoil Trump has caused in Europe – with threats to pull back from NATO and abandon Ukraine in its fight against Russia's invasion – the US role in Asia has largely been consistent, centered on a policy to counter Chinese influence and back Taiwan. Analysts noted that US-led military exercises, especially those involving key allies Japan, Australia, the Philippines and South Korea, have continued or even been bolstered in 2025.
