When 6,000 Immigrants Can Be Declared Dead, No One’s Benefits Are Safe
It would be short-sighted to view this as an immigration issue. In fact, this move reveals both our common vulnerability to the whims of high-up decision-makers, and our shared humanity.
When the Social Security Administration recently reclassified more than 6,000 living and breathing immigrants as dead in order to deny them the Social Security numbers and benefits they legally held, I empathized with those migrants.
I’m not an immigrant, and I don’t receive Social Security benefits. Yet my family, like millions of other Americans, has felt the pain and helplessness of losing access to services and benefits through no fault of our own.
The technique of declaring thousands of people “dead” with one stroke of the pen is particularly cruel and epitomizes the long-standing dehumanization of immigrants in this country.
At first glance, it might seem they target someone else, somewhere else. Upon further reflection, it is evident that the actions and tactics they deploy affect everyone.
But it would be short-sighted to view this as an immigration issue. In fact, this move reveals both our common vulnerability to the whims of high-up decision-makers, and our shared humanity.
As the Trump administration inflicts one cruel injustice after another, rapid fire, on immigrants and other vulnerable groups, these updates flash across screens as discrete, targeted acts. But it is more important than ever to focus on what we have in common and reframe these headlines as coordinated actions within systems that threaten everyone’s well-being.
A few years ago, my husband wrote the annual check for his life insurance policy, sealed it in the company’s return envelope, and dropped it into the official blue U.S. Postal Service mailbox near his bank. To his surprise, the life insurance company contacted him shortly after, notifying him that his policy was canceled due to nonpayment.
Turns out, he was one of thousands of victims of mail theft and check fraud in our town and throughout the country. Just this year, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service warned about mail theft and announced that check fraud has recently doubled.
My husband reported the crime to the police, and his bank covered the amount of the lost check. However, the life insurance company refused to reinstate his policy because during all those years he had been paying the annual fee, he also developed a chronic disease. As a small business owner with three children, my husband watched as an essential financial tool, put in place for our family, disappeared overnight—despite the fact that he had done everything right. Just like those 6,000 immigrants.
The health insurance industry has long employed the strategy of “deny, defend, and depose” to avoid covering the costs of important treatments for the sick and suffering who continue to pay climbing premiums. A 2025 article in the American Journal of Managed Care states that “insurance claim denials have risen 16% from 2018 to 2024, affecting access to essential medications like insulin and albuterol.” At the same time, health insurance companies’ net profitability increases.
Those immigrants followed strict rules and were granted Social Security numbers; they did nothing wrong. But just as their identities were wiped away, the high rate of health insurance claim denials financially wipes out millions of Americans. Almost half a million Americans declared personal bankruptcies in 2024, with medical debt the top cause.
Disability benefits are notoriously difficult to receive, and even when accessed, they are tenuous. According to the non-partisan USA Facts, “38% of applicants who meet technical requirements are accepted initially, but 53% of applicants who appeal that decision are ultimately approved.” However, the appeals process can be burdensome and last years. Paying into a private disability insurance plan holds no guarantees either.
Given that last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that “more than 1 in 4—over 70 million—adults in the United States reported having a disability,” everyone in this country knows someone who contends with their disability and simultaneously battles for benefits that are rightfully theirs. It shouldn’t be difficult, then, to empathize with immigrants’ dual plight: they must ward against diffuse and dangerous anti-immigrant sentiment and at the same time fight for basic benefits promised to them.
Even recipients of disability insurance cannot rest easy. They are often stalked and photographed by investigators who use highly selective photos to “prove” the person is able to work. Now, surveillance is digital, too. Algorithms and new surveillance technologies can be laced with bias, trespass privacy laws, and lead to unjust claim denials for the people who can least defend themselves.
These new technologies also surveil migrants, with the same built-in biases. A scholarly article published this year describes the system as “a vast digital dragnet.” Once sacred boundaries that protected the privacy of income-tax payers have now been violated to help the Department of Homeland Security locate tax-paying immigrants. Once breached, that once-clear line of privacy is now erased for anyone.
The policies and actions coming from the Trump administration can feel like a barrage—because they are. At first glance, it might seem they target someone else, somewhere else. Upon further reflection, it is evident that the actions and tactics they deploy affect everyone. No one deserves to capriciously have the rug pulled out from under them through no fault of their own—yet we’re barreling toward a future where that’s commonplace, and possibly the norm.
