Murray, Wyden, Senators Condemn Social Security Watchdog for Declining to Investigate Agency Abuse of Death Master File

ICYMI: Murray, Wyden, Senate Colleagues Slam Social Security for Improperly Declaring Thousands Dead, Call for Watchdog Investigation

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Ranking Member on the Senate Finance Committee, and 10 other senators in a letter to the Office of Inspector General (OIG), criticizing the Social Security Administration's watchdog office for declining to launch an investigation into the Trump administration's efforts to use the Death Master File (DMF) to purge thousands of legal immigrants' Social Security numbers in order to make them leave the country.

The senators raised concerns about the OIG's ability to act as an independent agency safeguarding the Social Security programs that millions of people rely on. The watchdog agency relied on previous statements made by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to forego addressing serious concerns about laws that the Trump administration may have broken by declaring thousands of legal immigrants as dead.

"SSA OIG appears to have taken SSA's word as fact instead of conducting an independent review," the senators wrote to SSA Acting Inspecting General Michelle L. Anderson. "This decision is a stark departure from the office's history and mission of conducting independent oversight of the Social Security Administration and its programs."

Instead of reviewing Social Security's recent actions, OIG instead announced its decision to review incorrectly recorded deaths from the previous administration that excludes the past seven months. This new audit by OIG raises serious questions on whether its oversight work has been politicized in light of Social Security's unlawful use of the DMF. SSA OIG has long served as an agency that conducts oversight of SSA, especially if possible laws, regulations, or policies were violated.

"If federal laws were not followed, or if an individual's constitutional rights were violated due to an agency action, the public needs to know. These instances may result in ongoing harm, regardless of whether an action or initiative is still operative," the senators concluded.

Senators joining the letter in addition to Murray and Wyden include: Peter Welch (D-VT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Angus King (I-ME), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR).

OIG's response to the senators' initial request is available HERE.

The senators' full letter to OIG is available HERE and below.

Michelle L. Anderson

Acting Inspector General

Social Security Administration

6401 Security Boulevard

Baltimore, MD 21235

Acting Inspector General Anderson:

We write in response to your letter dated August 18, 2025, in which the Office of Inspector General (OIG) declines our April 30 request to conduct a full investigation into reports that the Social Security Administration (SSA) placed living noncitizens on the Death Master File (DMF) in an effort to have them "self-deport." Based on your response, it appears your office did not conduct a thorough and independent review in response to our request. Consequently, we are concerned about the independence of the OIG and its ability to safeguard the Social Security programs and the millions of beneficiaries who rely on them.

In your letter, you write that your office had requested information from SSA regarding reports that it has placed noncitizens who are "lawfully present in the United States; have lawfully obtained Social Security numbers; are authorized to work in the country; and are not known to be deceased" in the DMF. However, based on your response, we are concerned that your "review" was not done thoroughly or independently. Instead, it appears SSA OIG relies primarily on a statement from SSA summarizing its actions and does not address any of our serious due process concerns or concerns related to possible violation of federal laws. In other words, SSA OIG appears to have taken SSA's word as fact instead of conducting an independent review.

This decision is a stark departure from the office's history and mission of conducting independent oversight of the Social Security Administration and its programs. As you know, SSA OIG has regularly initiated and completed audits of initiatives and actions that are no longer active. Lessons can still be obtained from investigating an inactive initiative or action as SSA may resume, either in whole or in part, the reviewed action or initiative in the future. Indeed, as your letter acknowledges, after it removed those individuals from the DMF, SSA implemented an alternative approach a few weeks later to manipulate its records of the same individuals to achieve the same outcome: rendering their SSNs unusable in an effort to have them self-deport.

Second, instances in which federal laws, regulations, or SSA policies were potentially violated should be investigated, regardless of whether the action or initiative is no longer active. As our letter noted, numerous federal laws may be implicated by this action as well as individuals' due process rights. If federal laws were not followed, or if an individual's constitutional rights were violated due to an agency action, the public needs to know. These instances may result in ongoing harm, regardless of whether an action or initiative is still operative. In such cases, actions that are not thoroughly investigated for their adverse impacts threaten to recur. There is no statute of limitations for an Inspector General to investigate wrongdoing.

Finally, rather than investigating this current, ongoing process, you instead announced a review of incorrectly recorded deaths during the previous administration and excluding the past seven months, during which time the Trump administration used the DMF to effect the "financial death" of SSN-holding immigrants in this country. We agree that the accuracy and reliability of SSA's death master file is critically important, which is why we requested the investigation in the first place. However, this audit seems somewhat duplicative, as OIG already continuously audits death records submitted by federal agencies and States. Since January 2020, OIG audited the death records submitted by the State Department, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Puerto Rico, New York City, and 18 states. The timing of this new audit and its review period raises questions about whether this audit was made due to political considerations rather than independent oversight, especially in light of significant action to unlawfully corrupt the SSA's DMF by this administration warranting immediate and thorough review.

We resubmit our April 30 request for the OIG to investigate SSA's decision to place living individuals on the Death Master File and to review the current process to apply special indicator codes to certain individuals.

We look forward to your prompt response to our request.

Sincerely,

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