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A combination of incompetence and extremism is once again on display at Trump’s Social Security Administration (SSA). On Friday, two disturbing stories broke. Wired reported that the Trump administration is demanding that SSA inform ICE about appointments made for in-person service at Social Security field offices, presumably so that agents can nab suspected undocumented immigrants. Meanwhile, according to Government Exec, SSA staffers were told to advise callers to the agency’s 1-800 number that “suicide is an option” for people considering ending their lives.
Trump is grossly misusing SSA to advance his extreme ideological agenda – against immigrants and against America’s hard-working public servants in the federal government. Both of Friday’s stories can be understood in this context.
“Suicide is an option”
The administration has slashed some 7,000 jobs at the Social Security Administration, creating a tremendous ‘brain drain’ and weakening an agency that serves a growing senior population.
Government Exec reports that, because of understaffing, SSA recently began “shifting new swaths of its workforce to phone answering duty,” providing those employees with only a brief, three-hour training.
In that training, employees were told to advise distressed callers expressing suicidal ideations that “suicide is only one option.” Employees in the room reportedly were “taken aback” and expressed “disbelief that it was just said.” Mental health experts roundly criticized the SSA training:
The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention maintains a best practices framework for suicide crisis lines, which emphasizes that suicide should not be presented as “acceptable.” – Government Exec, 2/13/26
When asked for his response to this news, former Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley told us, “For 90 years, the mission of Social Security field offices has been to promote, protect and defend the dignity of every human life. There must be some mistake. I cannot believe that anyone would try to teach the compassionate human beings of (SSA) to tell beneficiaries that taking their own lives is an option.”
This is only one of the latest in a series of outrages at Trump’s SSA, demonstrating that the purposely understaffed agency is awash in incompetence, poor judgement, and immoral leadership from the very top.
Reporting SSA field office appointments to ICE
The other recent outrage is the disclosure in Wired that workers at the Social Security Administration have been told to share information about in-person appointments with agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Wired quotes an unnamed SSA employee who fears retaliation for speaking out:
“If ICE comes in and asks if someone has an upcoming appointment, we will let them know the date and time,” an employee with direct knowledge of the directive says. – Wired, 2/13/26
This directive is well outside the mission of SSA, which is to administer Americans’ earned benefits – not to snitch on visitors to field offices who in some cases are non-citizens in the U.S. legally. (Some non-citizens can be eligible for Social Security benefits, while undocumented workers are not.)
“From the first moment that DOGE marched into Social Security, greenlighted by the (Trump) regime… we’ve seen them misuse Social Security in ways that can inflict pain and… suffering on others,” former commissioner O’Malley says. “We now see that they’re trying to turn the agency into a dragnet for the greatest internment of human beings on US soil in the modern history of America.”
Former acting Social Security commissioner under Trump, Leland Dudek, says that SSA is meant to be a “safe space” for Social Security applicants and beneficiaries. It’s important, he told Wired, for customers of SSA to feel that “SSA is there for them and no harm will come to them.” If this policy is kept in place, he says, “Why would the public trust SSA anymore?”
Fmr. Social Security Commissioner O’Malley says Trump is trying to turn SSA into “a dragnet for the greatest internment of human beings on US soil in the modern history of America.”
Reps. John Larson (D-CT) and Richard Neal (D-MA) of the House Ways and Means Committee responded with alarm to Friday’s reporting:::
“Under this administration, ICE has been transformed into Donald Trump’s secret police force – accountable to nobody. (Now) ICE is attempting to infiltrate the Social Security Administration… using field offices to further round up and detain people, and scaring people out of getting the benefits they need.”
NCPSSM’s senior Social Security policy expert, Maria Freese, points out that SSA is not the only agency the Trump regime has misused in pursuit of its anti-immigrant agenda. As Wired reports, a federal district judge in Massachusetts ruled that the IRS and SSA could not share taxpayer data with DHS or ICE – though this administration is not well known for complying with court orders.
‘The Dystopian Future is Now’
These latest revelations come on the heels of news that members of DOGE offered a conservative political advocate access to Americans’ personal Social Security data to “overturn election results.”
At an event on Capitol Hill last week, Reps. Larson, Neal, and other Democratic lawmakers demanded an investigation into DOGE misuse of Social Security data. Rep. Larson said that “this data belonging to you and your children, relating to this program that you put your trust in,” must be protected. “There will be justice!” he promised.
An angry Rep. John Larson (D-CT) demands an investigation into DOGE misuse of Social Security data
The administration seems to be doing everything in its power to foster public distrust in the SSA. Trump’s dystopian policies are contrary to the mission of the agency, which exists solely to deliver Americans’ earned benefits. Its operations are paid for by workers’ Social Security payroll contributions. SSA truly belongs to the American people. President Biden once called Social Security “a sacred trust.” But clearly nothing is sacred to the Trump administration. The dystopian future is now.