“For good reason, DHS has always been extremely careful about sharing data,” as former DHS staff who spoke to Wired while anonymous were not allowed to speak to the press. “It’s very jarring to see this change. In my opinion, all systematicization is scary because the government can chase real or perceived enemies or ‘aliens’.
Government agencies frequently share data, but experts say the process is documented and limited to specific purposes. Still, the integration appears to have the approval of the administration: On March 20th, President Trump signed Presidential Order It requires that all federal agencies “promote both interagency and interagency sharing and integration.” Doge officials The Trump administration leaders also suggest that all government data be concentrated in a single repository. “When we think about the future of AI, we need to get data in one place to consider using one of these tools at scale,” said Stephen Ehikian of General Services Administration at the Town Halle Meeting on March 20th in an interview with Fox News in March, claiming that Airbnb co-founder and Doge member Joe Gebbia will be “in charge of this kind of data sharing leak.”
According to former staff members, accessing data already owned by DHS in different departments has historically been “very difficult.” The combined data lake “represents a significant deviation in data norms and policies.” However, they say that “it’s easier to do this with DHS controlled data” than combining sensitive data from other agencies, as accessing data from other agencies can have an additional barrier.
That has not stopped Doge operatives from spending the past few months asking for access to immigration information that had been silent in various government agencies until recently. According to the documents submitted to United States, County and City Employee Federation, AFL-CIO v. Social Security Bureau In the March 15 lawsuit, Doge members stationed at SSA requested access to the USCIS database. keepa system of local and state governments, as well as federal governments, and examines the situation of human immigration.
According to two DHS sources with direct knowledge, the SSA data was uploaded to the USCIS system on March 24th. This is just nine days after DOGE accessed SSA’s sensitive government data system. The SSA source tells Wired that the type of information matches the agency’s Numident database, a file of information contained in the Social Security Number application. Included in Numident Record A person’s Social Security Number, Full Name, Date of Birth, Citizenship, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Mother’s Maiden, Alien Number, etc.
The surveillance for protecting this data also appears to be more restrictive. March, DHS Announced cut All major offices that are important security guards against data misuse, including the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, and the Office of the Civil Rights and Immigration Services Ombudsman. “We didn’t move in the data world without talking to CRCL,” says a former DHS employee.
