Good Morning, You’re Dead

All the way back in 1992 (yes, we realize some of you weren’t alive), there was a Robert Zemekis film, a kind of horror/fantasy/comedy/musical called ‘Death Becomes Her.’ It wasn’t much of a smash at the box office, but it has found a second life as a Broadway musical. There seems to be a lot of that going around lately (we’re looking at you, ‘SMASH’). The premise is that two warring divas are given the same magical potion, and now, despite each other’s efforts, neither of them can die. The film is chaotic, but the music is fun.

If only real life were something like the movies. Sort of. 6,000 immigrants will soon be told that they’re legally dead. At least, that’s how they’ll be listed in the Social Security database. The death notice will be sent out just as it is when someone actually dies. Anything that requires a social security number, such as employment and bank accounts, could now be suspended without any way for the ‘deceased’ to appeal the move.

The Punk administration is moving the immigrants’ names and legally obtained Social Security numbers to a database that federal officials normally use to track the deceased, according to the two people familiar with the moves and their ramifications. Their hope is that by doing so, they’ll encourage more immigrants to self deport. Mind you, there is no indication that any of these people have done anything wrong. They entered the country legally. They obtained Social Security numbers legally. These people have don’t nothing wrong.

And now they’re ‘dead.’

The effort hinges on a surprising new tactic: repurposing Social Security’s “death master file,” which for years has been used to track dead people who should no longer receive benefits, to include the names of living people who the government believes should be treated as if they are dead. As a result of being added to the death database, they would be blacklisted from a coveted form of identity that allows them to make and more easily spend money.

Mind you, the Social Security Administration maintains what is generally considered to be the most complete and accurate record of deaths going all the way back to 1899. The government’s move now disrupts that record by listing people as dead who remain very much alive.

There are a couple of problems with this move. First of all, there’s no established legal path to appeal being placed on the ‘unalive’ list. In effect, this does an end run around the Constitution, removing the guaranteed right to due process under the 14th Amendment. While we don’t expect this move to play well in the courts, there’s absolutely no precedent (and yes, we looked) that applies without twisting judges’ words horribly out of context. This is going to make all the court cases take longer to litigate and more uncertain as to their outcome.

There’s also the fact that the courts are pushing harder than ever on the administration’s plans to get rid of migrants. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said she would halt the Trump administration from ending a program that allowed hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans to live temporarily in the United States. At almost the same time, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the administration has to bring back the Maryland man who was mistakenly deported.

The administration has argued all the way to the top that once a person is out of US territory, it no longer has the authority or jurisdiction to bring them back. SCOTUS called bullshit on that lie. Unanimously. When was the last time you saw this court do anything unanimously? The move is a direct slap in the face of President Punk and the DOJ.

The problem that seems most apparent, though, is that once a person is declared dead in the Social Security database, can they be brought back to life without issuing them new Social Security numbers? New numbers would create a disconnect with immigrants’ previous lives. Employment records, taxes paid, and social security paid into the system would all be gone. Can a person be ‘resurrected’ with their original number?

You know, Easter is just around the corner.

This is simply another mess brought to you by people who lack the critical thinking skills to work all the way through an idea before implementing it. They’ve taken a ‘consequences be damned’ approach to almost everything the administration has done on immigration. They’re disrupting lives simply because they can.

And when they’re done messing with immigrants, they’ll turn their attention to the rest of us, using whatever methods made it past SCOTUS.