How DOGE is combing through housing and other data to find migrants for Trump’s deportation plans
Department of Government Efficiency staffers have been given access to government databases containing private information about where people work or live – all with the intention of identifying undocumented immigrants and assisting in President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
Those databases – at agencies such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Social Security Administration and IRS – contain private information that immigrants of all statuses have submitted about themselves, believing the information would not be used against them.
At HUD, officials are working on a rule that would ban mixed-status households – or those with people who have different immigration or citizenship statuses – from obtaining public housing, unnamed staffers
DOGE, which is being spearheaded by Elon Musk, is combing through HUD data to identify undocumented immigrants and then share that data with the Department of Homeland Security to have people removed from accessing public benefits, even if they live with someone who has legal status.
The push is the latest in a string of moves to use government data to help back the executive branch’s priorities. However, legal experts say the moves risk breaking privacy rules and can sow distrust in the government.
“It’s not only about one subgroup of people, it’s really about all of us,” Tanya Broder, senior counsel for health and economic justice policy at the National Immigration Law Center told the Post. “Everyone cares about their privacy. Nobody wants their health-care information or tax information broadcast and used to go after us.”
However, the White House has backed the moves saying sharing data to find migrants and remove them.
“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, scrub these individuals from voter rolls, as well as identify what public benefits these aliens are using at taxpayer expense,” a Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs told the outlet.
“American tax dollars should be used for the benefit of American citizens, especially when it comes to an issue as pressing as our nation’s housing crisis,” Secretary of HUD, Scott Turner, said in a statement. “This new agreement will leverage resources including technology and personnel to ensure American people are the only priority when it comes to public housing.”
The Independent has asked HUD for comment.
Similar database-accessing tactics have been used at other federal agencies in order to share information with Homeland Security or Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
At the Social Security office, officials revoked more than 6,300 undocumented immigrants’ status that allows them to work, hoping the move will encourage people to “self deport.”
At the IRS, officials have agreed to share specific tax information related to undocumented immigrants with ICE. The agency could use that information to locate millions of people they suspect of being in the country illegally. After the two agencies reached the agreement, the commissioner of the IRS resigned.
Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for DHS, said in a statement that sharing information across government agencies was crucial to “solve problems.”
