Social Security data is shared openly with DHS to target immigrants
last week, The Social Security Administration (SSA) has quietly updated a public notice to reveal that the agency shares “citizenship and immigration information” with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This data sharing has already been happening: WIRED reported in April that the Trump administration had already begun collecting sensitive data from across the government in order to enforce immigration laws.
This public notice issued by the SSA, months after the fact, makes it official. This notice is known as a System of Record Notice (SORN), and is a document that describes how the agency will share the data it has, with whom, and for what purpose. This notice is required under the Privacy Act 1974. Typically, SORNs are issued before any data is shared between agencies, giving the public and government officials ample time to comment. But WIRED found that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) pulls data from DHS, SSA, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and state voter data, among other sources, based on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Systematic Alien Verification (SAVE) database.
“There are laws that require the government to report people on their use of all kinds of databases and other surveillance technologies,” says Adam Schwartz, director of privacy issues at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit focused on digital privacy and free expression. If the government starts using the database and doesn’t publish the appropriate disclosures, then… He does “Providing the appropriate disclosures, they are still breaking the law.”
The Trump administration has made every effort to remake the government in its image. A key element of this effort was the collection of large amounts of data from various federal agencies, much of which was never intended to be collected. This has often occurred without regard to the laws, rules or procedures that typically govern access to and sharing of sensitive data. SSA’s SORN is just the latest confirmation of exactly how much data is being shared in a way experts say WIRED is “unprecedented.”
Much of this data sharing starts with misinformation about the available data. In the early days of the Trump administration, Elon Musk used a misunderstanding of Social Security Administration data to spread the claim that 150-year-olds were receiving benefits. This was not the case, but DOGE used the idea that SSA’s systems were ineffective and fraudulent to compromise the agency’s data and technology systems. In April, a New York Times report revealed that in an effort to force immigrants to deport themselves, the government is adding them to the SSA’s database of the dead, meaning their Social Security numbers cannot be used to find jobs or access government services. As part of an effort to integrate disparate data across the government for citizenship verification and immigrant surveillance, the Department of Homeland Security recently released a different but related SORN that effectively turns SAVE into a voter verification system, which experts have also warned could circumvent Privacy Act requirements.
Leland Dudek, who served as acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration between February and May 2025, led the agency when DOGE members made their debut. Dudek says he initially supported DOGE and served as a bridge between SSA staff and DOGE team members before becoming discouraged.
