“If ICE comes and asks if someone has an upcoming appointment, we’ll tell them the date and time,” says an employee with direct knowledge of the directive. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
Although most appointments with the SSA are over the phone, some appointments are in person. This applies to people who are deaf or hard of hearing and need a sign language interpreter, or if someone needs to change their direct deposit information. Noncitizens are also required to appear in person to review continued eligibility for benefits.
Social Security numbers are issued to U.S. citizens as well as foreign students and people legally permitted to live and work in the country. In some cases, when a child or dependent is a citizen and no family member is responsible for him or her, that person may be required to accompany the child or dependent on office visits.
The information sharing order, which was recently communicated verbally to workers in some SSA offices, marks a new era of cooperation between the SSA and the Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency.
SSA and DHS did not respond to requests for comment.
The SSA has been sharing data with ICE during President Donald Trump’s second term. In April, WIRED reported that the Trump administration was collecting sensitive data from across the government, including the SSA, DHS, and the Internal Revenue Service. By November, WIRED learned that the SSA had made the arrangements official and updated a public notice saying the agency was sharing “citizenship and immigration information” with DHS. “It was surprisingly clear that there was interest in gaining access to immigration data [the] Trump administration,” a former SSA official told WIRED. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to concerns of retaliation.
This data sharing has not been without controversy: Last week, a district judge in Massachusetts ruled that the IRS and SSA cannot share taxpayer data with DHS or ICE.
“You’re seeing SSA becoming an extension of Homeland Security,” says Leland Dudek, former acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration.
Dudek says the directive to share details about individual appointments would be “highly unusual,” especially because the SSA is meant to be a “safe place” for people regardless of immigration status. “If a person has to receive benefits, SSA is there for them and will not harm them,” he says. Cooperating with ICE in this way, Dudek says, “diminishes the SSA’s importance to the public. Why would the public trust the SSA anymore?”
Questions about how SSA workers can communicate with the public have continued during Trump’s first term. As part of its infiltration into the federal government, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency sought to end the SSA’s phone-based services, but withdrew the decision after public backlash.
The SSA typically works with law enforcement officials on investigations involving fraud or identity theft. It has publicly disclosed data-sharing agreements with DHS, but it appears no one’s appointment times or schedules are included in those arrangements.
Dudek says an SSA office historically could only arrest someone if the person threatened the agency or staff members. “Anything that typically involves an apprehension of someone in an office or something like that is reported through the office manager and the DHS representative,” Dudek says. “On several occasions I have had to turn over information to law enforcement, but there’s a process to it, paperwork, multiple people signing off. It feels like it just tells us to ignore that policy without actually updating it. It’s really worrisome.”
<a href