Democrats push SSA on reported DOGE plan to ‘kill off’ living individuals in database

Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal want answers from the Social Security Administration chief following a whistleblower complaint that revealed a DOGE plan to target undocumented immigrants by moving 2.7 million living people to the agency’s Death Master File.

In letters sent Friday to SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano and three DOGE alums — Antonio Gracias, Jon Koval and Payton Rehling — the lawmakers shared the protected disclosure of a former career SSA official, Jeremiah Schofield, who spent more than 25 years at the agency.

Schofield, an expert in the process by which the SSA assigns Social Security numbers and cards, was called to meetings with the three DOGE representatives and other career agency staff to discuss potential fraud and the Numident system, which includes all information applicants must disclose for a Social Security card.

Following a pair of Department of Homeland Security orders from then-Secretary Kristi Noem involving Numident and the Death Master File, Schofield said he “was asked to develop a strategic approach to ‘killing off’” individuals’ Social Security records, adding that he “understood that this directive had come from DHS and ‘killing off’ meant marking these individuals as deceased in the Numident system.”

Schofield shared his concerns with Stephen Evangelista, then the SSA’s deputy commissioner for the Office of Retirement and Disability Policy, who called DOGE’s Koval and asked why DHS wanted to eliminate 2.7 million people from the list.

“Mr. Koval responded that doing so would have two possible outcomes, either of which would be welcomed by DHS,” Schofield wrote. “The result would either be (1) that the lives of these individuals would be ruined because of the real-life hardship that results from being ‘killed’ in SSA systems and they would be driven to ‘self-deport,’ or (2) they would have to go to a local Social Security office, at which point SSA field office staff would send them to DHS offices where ICE or USCIS would detain them for deportation. 

“I clearly heard Mr. Koval explain that DHS’s goal in having SSA make the changes in the Numident system was to lead to the deportation of these 2.7 million people,” he continued. “Mr. Koval could not have been more explicit about his unlawful purpose in asking us to ‘kill off’ these 2.7 million individuals.”

In a press release from Warren’s office, the Massachusetts Democrat said Schofield’s disclosure shows what “looks like an illegal attempt by DOGE to weaponize Social Security to carry out [President Donald] Trump’s cruel immigration agenda.” Blumenthal echoed his colleague’s remarks.

“Thanks to this brave whistleblower’s disclosure, we have more evidence that the Trump Administration used DOGE not just to recklessly slash government programs — they were looking for ways to purposefully hurt people, especially immigrants,” the Connecticut Democrat said in a statement. “Senator Warren and I are demanding answers about how DOGE and the Trump Administration weaponized the Social Security Administration to carry out its lawless immigration enforcement agenda.”

The lawmakers’ letter to Bisignano requests “full and prompt compliance” with their questions. Specifically, Warren and Blumenthal want the SSA head to detail the specific agency databases that the DOGE trio had access to, as well as their levels of access to those systems and how long they maintained that access.

The Senate Democrats also want to know if Gracias, Koval and Rehling removed any SSA information from agency-run systems, how much — if any— of the plan to eliminate 2.7 million individuals from the Numident system was implemented, if there is any additional documentation that notes plans to mark individuals as dead in SSA records, and names and titles of anyone else involved in the plan. 

An unnamed SSA spokesperson told The Washington Post, which first reported Schofield’s whistleblower complaint, that the agency “did not add a list of 2.7 million names to the Death Master File.”