US Tries To Force Migrants To Leave By Listing Them As Dead

The Trump administration has moved to classify more than 6,000 living immigrants as dead, cancelling their social security numbers and in effect wiping out their ability to work or receive benefits in an effort to get them to leave the country, according to two people familiar with the situation.

- Associated Press

The move will make it much harder for those affected to use banks or other basic services where social security numbers are required.

It is part of a broader effort by Donald Trump to crack down on immigrants who were allowed to enter and remain temporarily in the US under policies of the US president's predecessor, Joe Biden.

The Trump administration is moving the immigrants' names and legally obtained social security numbers to a database that federal officials normally use to track the deceased, according to the two people familiar with the moves and their ramifications. They spoke on condition of anonymity on Thursday night because the plans had not yet been publicly detailed.

The officials said stripping the immigrants of their social security numbers will cut them off from many financial services and encourage them to "self-deport" and abandon the US for their birth countries.