Dem
47
GOP
53
Social Security is under fire from all directions. Republicans have long wanted to replace it with private saving accounts. Elon Musk thinks it is a big Ponzi scheme and is taking action by firing employees and closing offices. But he is also using it in an unexpected, and especially malicious, way.
The Social Security Administration maintains a database called the Social Security Death Index. It keeps a list of dead people who had Social Security numbers. The nominal reason is that in order to avoid making or continuing to make payments to people who are dead, it needs a database of who is dead. Over time, the database has acquired other uses. For example, the genealogy website ancestry.com has it online. Entering the name of a dead ancestor turns up his or her birth date, death date, and the date and location the number was issued, providing clues for subsequent searches for birth certificates, death certificates, and other useful documents.
But Elon Musk has found an entirely new use for it: punishing immigrants. Musk is now sending information about immigrants to the SSA, claiming they are dead when they are in fact very much alive. Not only does it prevent them from receiving any benefits to which they might be otherwise entitled, but it has other (often disastrous) effects. For example, if an immigrant, legal or otherwise, shows up at a bank with a valid Social Security number and wants to open a bank account, the bank might check the death index, discover that the owner of the number was "dead," and thus the person standing there must be using a stolen number. Good idea to call the cops, no? Employers might also check. Signing up for Medicaid would probably also not work.
In short, being officially dead might make life so difficult for even legal immigrants that they have to self deport because "living" in the U.S. when you are officially dead is so difficult as to be nearly impossible. (V)