Social Security information is apparently shared with DHS to target immigrants

last week The Social Security Administration (SSA) has quietly updated a public notice to reveal that the agency is sharing “citizenship and immigration information” with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This data sharing has already happened: WIRED reported in April that the Trump administration had already begun collecting sensitive data from across the government for immigration enforcement.

This public notice issued by the SSA, months after the fact, makes it official. This notice is known as a System of Records Notice (SORN), a document that describes how an organization shares its information, with whom, and for what purpose. This notice is required under the Privacy Act of 1974. Typically, SORNs are issued before information is shared between agencies, giving the public and government officials ample time to comment. But WIRED found that the DOGE collects data from DHS, SSA, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and state voter data, among other sources, primarily based on the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Systematic Alien Verification (SAVE) database.

“There are laws that require the government to inform the public about their use of any databases and other surveillance technologies,” says Adam Schwartz, director of privacy litigation at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on digital privacy and free speech. If the government starts using the database and doesn’t make proper disclosures, and later does Fair disclosure, they are still breaking the law.

The Trump administration has made every effort to remake the government in its own image. A major part of this effort is collecting large amounts of information from federal agencies, much of which was never intended to be collected. This has often occurred without regard to the laws, norms or procedures that normally govern access to and sharing of sensitive information. The SORN from the SSA is just the latest confirmation of exactly how much data is being shared in a way that experts say WIRED is “unprecedented.”

Much of this data sharing begins with misinformation about what data is available. In the early days of the Trump administration, Elon Musk used misunderstandings of SSA data to spread the claim that 150-year-olds were receiving benefits. They were not, but DOGE used the idea that SSA’s systems were inefficient and fraudulent to infiltrate the agency’s data and technology systems. In April, a New York Times report revealed that in an effort to force immigrants to leave, the government is including them in the SSA’s database of dead people, meaning their Social Security numbers cannot be used to find jobs or access government services. As part of an effort to consolidate disparate data across the government to verify citizenship and monitor immigrants, DHS recently issued a separate but related SORN that effectively replaces the Secure Voter Verification System, which experts also warn could circumvent the Privacy Act’s requirements.

Leland Dudek, who served as acting commissioner for the Social Security Administration between February and May 2025, headed the agency when DOGE members first appeared. Dudek says he initially supported DOGE and acted as a bridge between SSA staff and DOGE team members before he became disillusioned.