Immigrants in the US will reportedly be classified as dead and pressured to ‘self-deport’ in a new Trump crackdown.
Potentially hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals without legal status will be added to a database of dead people called the ‘death master list’, according to Reuters.
Over 6,000 mostly Latino immigrant have already been added to the list, the Washington Post has reported.
This would make their Social Security numbers inoperable and stop them from accessing a current account or credit card, or receiving government benefits.
The White House’s goal is to pressure immigrants, who lawfully came to the country under Joe Biden but have since had their temporary status revoked, to ‘self-deport’ out of the US.
The ‘death master list’ is currently used to identify dead people who should no longer receive Social Security benefits.
Some 900,000 people who entered America using the CBP One app in Biden’s four year term could be at risk of losing their Social Security number in this plan.
Earlier this week the Trump administration revoked the legal status of those who entered through the app, which had initially allowed them to stay in the country for two years.
Without a Social Security number immigrants would effectively be cut off from financial services, from benefits to credit cards.
President Trump confirmed the White House’s desire to coerce immigrants to ‘self-deport’ but did not comment on the reported plans directly.
Assistant Press Secretary Liz Huston said in a statement: ‘President Trump promised mass deportations and by removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come and stay, we will encourage them to self-deport.’
What we know about unauthorised immigrants living in the U.S.
The number of unauthorised immigrants living in the United States shot up to 11.0 million in 2022, according to new Pew Research Center.
However that number actually peak at 12.2 million in 2007.
Mexicohas long been and continues to be the most common country of birthfor illegal immigrants in the US.
As of 2022,illegal immigrants form 3.3% of the total U.S. population and23% of the foreign-born population.
Over 4 million children in the US, who were born there, live with an unauthorised immigrant parent.
This is because of birthright citizenship laws which mean anyone born in the country is a US citizen.
The states with the largest illegal immigrant population are California with 1.8 million people, Texas with 1.6 million and Florida with 1.2 million.
The lawfulimmigrant population has also risen gradually in the last two decades, from 24.1 million in 2000 to 36.9 million in 2022.
The aggressive new tactic is the latest move from the White House to cut the numbers of immigrants in the US.
They have also added more than 6,300 convicted criminals or “suspected terrorists” have been added to the country’s government blacklist, the New York Times.
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On Monday, government agencies agreed plans to provide taxpayer datato federal immigration authorities to help them locate migrants.
The controversial measures triggered a string of resignations from top tax-collecting officials.
There are also plans to force all non-citizens aged over 14 and over, who have been in the country for more than 30 days, to apply for registration and fingerprinting.
Once registered, they will then have carry their proof of registration with them at all times or risk a fine or imprisonment.
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