Featured Image Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, US News
Joe Harker
Over 6,000 people living in the US have been classified as 'dead' by Donald Trump's government in an effort to get them to leave the country, according to reports.
Trump has a hardline stance on immigration and has been pursuing policies his government believes will result in 'self-deportation', where the migrant decides to leave.
Recently, thousands of migrants to the US who entered in the last few years and used an app to arrange asylum appointments were told to leave 'immediately'.
A group of around 900,000 people who entered the US through its border with Mexico using the app were generally allowed to remain in the US for two years and the BBC reports they were given 'parole' from immigration laws so they could legally work in America.
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However, that app has since been used for deportations and people using it have been told 'it is time for you to leave the United States'.
Now, AP reports that over 6,000 migrants living in the US are being classified as 'dead', with their information moved into a database at the Social Security Administration (SSA) that is normally used to track people who have died.
According to the report these people have had their legally obtained social security (the benefits system in the US) numbers cancelled and since they're classed as 'dead' they are going to find it very difficult to get work or access financial services.
Given that they won't be able to work or access benefits it would be very difficult for them to remain in the US, which would then presumably lead them to 'self-deport'.
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Two insiders who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity provided the details in this matter, since information on this plan had not been made public.
Elsewhere in his crackdown on migrants, Trump deported some of them to one of the world's toughest prisons in El Salvador after they were accused of being involved with Venezuelan gangs.
However, as CNN reports there have been challenges to the deportations with their families saying their loved ones have no ties to the allegations of gang activity used against them.
The US also admitted that it had mistakenly deported Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, originally from El Salvador but granted protected status in the US in 2019, due to an 'administrative error'.
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"On March 15, although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error," The Trump administration admitted.
However, they've said that they can't get him out of the prison they sent him to because he's now in El Salvadorean custody.
LADbible has contacted the US Social Security Administration for comment.