How Trump’s living ‘dead’ immigrants can fight for their rights

Earlier this month, the Trump administration escalated its assault on immigrants’ rights by reporting living people as “dead” in the Social Security Administration’s death master file, even though those people had lawfully obtained Social Security numbers. Such falsehoods by a government agency are outrageous and unconscionable — and they’re a clear violation of federal law.

Being declared dead by the Social Security Administration not only cuts off access to Social Security and government benefits but can also destroy people’s ability to find work, rent apartments, get utilities or access credit or insurance. This appears to be the intent of the Trump administration’s action.

The big three credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — rely on data from the death master file to mark individuals as dead. Because credit reports and credit scores are used in screening people to open bank accounts, get credit, rent an apartment or get a job, marking someone as dead can cost them access to a range of ordinary activities.

When a bank, creditor, debt collector or, in this case, the Social Security Administration, knowingly reports false information to the credit bureaus, that is a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Using information from an unreliable source like Trump’s Social Security Administration breaks the Fair Credit Reporting Act’s requirement to “use reasonable procedures to ensure maximum possible accuracy.” Credit bureaus are not following the law if they use information from a source they know is providing false information. 

There’s also a pretty big risk that the administration will end up tagging the wrong people. That’s what happened when the Office of Foreign Assets Control's list of Specially Designated Nationals in and around 2011. Scores of innocent consumers were mistakenly tagged as potential terrorists or drug traffickers, leading to a Supreme Court case. 

There’s a lot of evidence, including from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, that credit bureaus already too often label people as dead who are not. It’s nearly impossible for people to get those errors fixed. 

The administration’s corruption of the Social Security death master file will multiply those problems, and a majority of the impact will likely be felt by Arab, Latino, Muslim and Black communities, as well as other non-white communities.

The harm from falsely reporting someone as dead won’t just end with shutting down their credit reports. Mortgage companies, for example, use the death master file to determine when to collect on a reverse mortgage. Government agencies, including state and local agencies, reference the file when distributing assistance funds. 

Incorrectly labeling living people as dead raises all sorts of questions: Can spouses and children start collecting survivors' benefits? Will creditors file a claim against their estates? 

The administration is claiming that the people it has reported as deceased are “terrorists” and “criminals.” But as we have seen repeatedly, it is using that label indiscriminately and inaccurately to target people who express a contrary political opinion. 

Moreover, even people accused of terrorism are entitled to due process before the government declares them dead. And polluting our credit reporting system with junk data helps no one.

Finally, for anyone who finds themselves on the receiving end of a false report that they are deceased, you have rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. You can challenge the lie with a dispute to the credit bureaus and the Social Security Administration. 

You might need to file a dispute a few times. If that doesn’t work, consider seeking legal assistance. 

Despite the flurry of confusion in the Capitol, we are still a nation of laws, and consumers falsely reported as deceased still have rights.

Chi Chi Wu is a senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.