White House Marks 6,000 Migrants As Dead So That They ‘Self-Deport’: Reports

President Donald Trump’s administration has reportedly taken a drastic new step to force out undocumented Latino immigrants: marking 6,000 of them as dead.

People familiar with the strategy shared details with The Washington Post and The New York Times on Thursday, saying Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has directed the Social Security Administration to add the names and Social Security numbers of more than 6,000 immigrants, most of whom are Latino, into a database used to track dead people, stripping them of their ability to access benefits or work in the U.S.

The move is part of a Trump administration scheme to target immigrants who are undocumented but have Social Security numbers, which allow them to access benefits like Medicaid, unemployment insurance and federal student loans.

“President Trump promised mass deportations, and by removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come and stay, we will encourage them to self-deport,” White House spokesperson Elizabeth Huston wrote in a statement. “He is delivering on his promise he made to the American people.”

A White House official told the Post that of the 6,000 immigrants targeted, nearly 1,000 are collecting Medicaid, 41 are collecting unemployment insurance and 22 are receiving student loans.

A source told the Times that the list included a 13-year-old and seven other minors.

The Social Security Administration acknowledged in a blog post last month that being incorrectly put on its “Death Master File” could be highly damaging not only to that person’s well-being, but to that of their families too.

“Instances when a person is erroneously reported as deceased to Social Security can be [devastating] to the individual, spouse, and dependent children,” the SSA’s post said. “Benefits are stopped in the short term which can cause financial hardship until fixed and benefits restored, and the process to prove an erroneous death will always seem too long and challenging.”