DOGE plan would have marked 2.7M living people as dead: Whistleblower
Posted: Jun 5, 2026 / 03:43 PM PDT
Updated: Jun 5, 2026 / 03:43 PM PDT
(NewsNation) — The Trump administration planned to mark 2.7 million living people as dead in Social Security records as part of an immigration enforcement push, a whistleblower alleges.
The request to effectively “kill off” people in Social Security records came from the Department of Homeland Security and involved Elon Musk’s DOGE team, according to a new whistleblower disclosure.
The disclosure, first reported by The Washington Post, comes from Jeremiah Schofield, a former senior Social Security executive who worked at the agency for more than 25 years. Social Security: Here’s how much monthly checks could be cut by 2032
In the 49-page document, Schofield describes a plan aimed at pressuring targeted individuals to self-deport or visit Social Security offices where immigration officials could locate them.
Being incorrectly marked as dead in Social Security’s Death Master File can disrupt nearly every aspect of a person’s financial life, but that outcome, the disclosure suggests, was part of the effort.
The Social Security Administration told NewsNation the agency did not add a list of 2.7 million names to the Death Master File, a database used to track deaths.
Reflecting on a call about the proposed plan, Schofield told The Post: “That call was one of the most disappointing calls I’ve been in in my 25-year career. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.” Social Security watchdog investigating complaint over ex-DOGE worker
Schofield’s disclosure said he analyzed a sample of 25 names from the list of 2.7 million the DHS wanted marked as deceased and found that most of those he reviewed were U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.
“At a minimum, none of the 25 people were dead,” the disclosure says.
Schofield refused to carry out the plan, and agency lawyers advised the effort would be illegal, according to the disclosure.
A DHS spokesperson did not address the specific allegations in a statement to NewsNation but said information sharing across agencies is “essential to identify who is in our country, including violent criminals, determine what public safety and terror threats may exist so we can neutralize them, and identify what public benefits these aliens are using at taxpayer expense.”
While the 2.7 million names were never added to the Death Master File, the disclosure is the latest to raise concerns about DOGE’s handling of Social Security data.
In March, The Washington Post reported on a separate whistleblower complaint involving a former DOGE employee’s access to two highly sensitive Social Security databases, including allegations that data from one was kept on a thumb drive.
