Overview

• The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, accessed Social Security Administration (SSA) databases to address alleged fraud but erroneously marked 4 million living Americans as deceased.
• Affected individuals must undergo a burdensome in-person process at SSA offices to have their records reinstated, which can take several days to complete.
• The misclassifications have caused widespread financial and personal disruptions, including frozen bank accounts, halted benefits, and flagged identification documents.
• Over 6,000 migrants were deliberately added to the Death Master File to force self-deportation, raising ethical and legal concerns about DOGE's immigration measures.
• The SSA, already strained by staffing cuts and office closures, is overwhelmed by the scale of the errors as legal challenges and public criticism mount against DOGE’s reforms.