Trump’s DOGE Gets Access to Sensitive Immigration Data in Alarming Surveillance Push

The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has received access to one of the most sensitive databases in the federal government, raising new alarm bells over immigrant surveillance and privacy violations.

According to The Washington Post, the Justice Department quietly approved DOGE’s access on Friday to the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s (EOIR) Courts and Appeals System — a database containing decades’ worth of records on millions of immigrants, both documented and undocumented.

This system includes highly sensitive information such as home addresses, court histories, testimonies, and confidential asylum interviews, some dating as far back as the 1990s.

DOGE’s Expanding Surveillance Footprint

DOGE’s access to the EOIR system is part of a broader initiative to build what internal sources describe as a “master system” for tracking undocumented immigrants across federal agencies.

The department has already tapped into data from:

• The Department of Housing and Urban Development

• The Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

• The Department of Labor

• And the Social Security Administration (SSA)

In one controversial move, the SSA reportedly added thousands of immigrants to its “death file”, cutting them off from legal and financial services — despite knowing the individuals were alive — to pressure them into self-deportation.

Backlash from Within and Outside Government

The project has already had internal consequences. Earlier this month, the acting IRS chief resigned after a deal was struck allowing DOGE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to use tax data from undocumented immigrants.

A senior DHS official told WIRED,

“They are trying to amass a huge amount of data. It has nothing to do with finding fraud or wasteful spending. They are already cross-referencing immigration with SSA and IRS, as well as voter data.”

DOGE’s aggressive cross-agency strategy has alarmed privacy advocates and civil rights groups, who argue it risks creating a surveillance dragnet with minimal oversight or accountability.

Legal Pushback Begins

In response to growing public scrutiny, a federal judge on Monday blocked SSA staffers working with DOGE from accessing certain categories of sensitive data — a small but significant blow to the department’s broad data-mining strategy.

The Justice Department has not commented on the scope of DOGE’s access or what safeguards, if any, are in place to prevent abuse of this information.

As watchdog groups prepare legal challenges and oversight bodies demand answers, DOGE’s sweeping surveillance efforts appear to be a defining front in the Trump administration’s hardline immigration strategy — one that may test the limits of federal power, privacy, and due process.

{Source: Independent}

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