The Trump administration allegedly devised a controversial plan to mark 2.7 million living individuals as deceased, according to a whistleblower’s disclosure. This scheme, which was never fully implemented, aimed to make immigrants’ lives so difficult that they would choose to leave the country. The plan involved adding these individuals to the Social Security Administration’s Death Master Fileeffectively cutting them off from the financial system.
The whistleblower, Jeremiah Schofield, a former senior Social Security executive with over 20 years of experience, detailed the plan in a 49-page disclosure to the Senate. Schofield claimed that the plan was part of Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts and that it was ultimately not carried out due to legal concerns.
The Alleged Plan and Its Intent
The plan would have barred individuals, including some U.S. citizens, from the country’s financial system, blocking them from receiving wages and government benefits. Schofield discovered the plan’s possible intent—to intimidate and worsen the finances of immigrants—after taking a sample of people from the 2.7 million and finding they were all alive. The sample included U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, teenagers, and senior citizens, including one widow who was a legal permanent resident receiving survivor benefits.
Schofield’s whistleblower complaint describes a tumultuous period inside Social Security, as career officials questioned the legality of such efforts. In one meeting, a DOGE official working with the Department of Homeland Security described the goal of declaring 2.7 million living people dead: making immigrants so miserable that they self-deported or went to Social Security offices for help, where they could be arrested.
The Legal Concerns and Denials
Schofield claimed he refused to help implement the plan after agency lawyers warned that falsely marking living people as dead could violate federal law. The Social Security Administration denied that the plan was ever implemented, stating that they did not add a list of 2.7 million names to the Death Master File. The agency emphasized that it maintains the highest level of internal controls to ensure the integrity and accuracy of agency records.
The Department of Homeland Security did not directly address the plan but defended the sharing of information across agencies. A spokeswoman claimed that information sharing is essential to identify who is in the country, determine public safety and terror threats, and identify public benefits used by aliens at taxpayer expense.
The Broader Context
This allegation is not the first of its kind. Earlier this year, another whistleblower alleged misuse of Americans’ personal data at DOGE, claiming that a former DOGE staffer planned to share sensitive agency databases with his private employer. The staffer allegedly had access to the data through two databases called Numident and the Master Death Fileone of which he had on a thumb drive.
The former DOGE member allegedly continued to hold unrestricted God-level security access, along with his agency credentials and computer, even long after leaving DOGE. He reportedly told the whistleblower that he intended to use the data at the private company.
The disclosure has infuriated Senate Democrats, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts calling it an illegal attempt by DOGE to weaponize Social Security. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut stated that the episode showed an administration intent on making people suffer, immigrants most of all. Both senators have sent letters to the SSA and to the trio of ex-DOGE officials.
The administration acknowledged in court papers last month that it had revoked DOGE’s data access at the start of the year and would not be reinstating it.
