According to a new report from the Washington Post, a senior official in the Social Security Administration was marched out of his office after he confronted one of Elon Musk's outside hires over a change in policy that he deemed illegal.
The report states that "well-regarded" official Greg Pearre raised objections when Scott Coulter, the newly installed chief information officer, detailed his plans to transfer the migrants’ names into a Social Security death database, thereby halting their ability to make a living by working.
According to the report, Pearre told Coulter, "the plan was illegal, cruel and risked declaring the wrong people dead, according to three people familiar with the event," which led to his being escorted out of his office and placed on leave.
The WaPo's Hannah Natanson, Lisa Rein and Meryl Kornfield are reporting, "They walked Pearre out of the building, capping a momentous internal battle over the novel strategy — pushed by Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service and the Department of Homeland Security — to add thousands of immigrants ranging in age from teenagers to octogenarians to the agency’s Death Master File. The dataset is used by government agencies, employers, banks and landlords to check the status of employees, residents, clients and others."
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The report notes that multiple experts agree with Pearre, stating it violates privacy laws as flagrantly falls under falsifying government records.
According to Devin O’Connor of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, "This is an unprecedented step. The administration seems to basically be saying they have the right to essentially declare people equivalent to dead who have not died. That’s a hard concept to believe, but it brings enormous risks and consequences.”
The report adds that a call was made to Coulter, "an investment firm founder named to the top technology job on March 27," on Friday asking for comment and that he hung up on the Post reporter.
You can read more here.