Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Immigrants Aren't Dead, But Social Security Adds Them To Death Database
The Washington Post: Social Security Classifies Thousands Of Immigrants As Dead, As Part Of Trump Crackdown
The Social Security Administration this week entered the names and Social Security numbers of more than 6,000 mostly Latino immigrants into a database it uses to track dead people, effectively erasing their ability to receive benefits or work legally in the United States, according to four people familiar with the situation and records obtained by The Washington Post. The move, requested by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, is aimed at putting pressure on the undocumented immigrants to leave the country, according to a White House official. (Rein, Natanson and Sacchetti, 4/10)
The Washington Post: FBI, Other Criminal Investigators Drafted For Welfare Checks On Migrant Children
The Department of Homeland Security has enlisted the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in recent weeks to conduct welfare checks on children and young people who came to the United States without their parents, alarming advocates who worry it’s an effort to target them for deportation or scare them. President Donald Trump has long accused his predecessor of losing more than 300,000 migrant children, claiming that they are now “slaves, sex slaves or dead,” though many also arrived during the president’s first term. Immigration experts have said that most of those children have been safely reunited with their parents or relatives in the United States. (LeVine, Sacchetti, Roebuck, Loennig and Nakashima, 4/10)
The Washington Post: Fearing Paper On Evolution Might Get Them Deported, Scientists Withdrew It
President Donald Trump’s orders haven’t targeted research involving evolution, but the authors’ unease about publishing reflects uncertainty in the science world. (Johnson, 4/10)
ProPublica: Meet The Tent Company Making A Fortune Off Trump’s Deportation Plans
The privately held company Deployed Resources has made billions running tent detention facilities to hold immigrants entering the U.S. at the border. Now it is cashing in again on Trump’s plan to hold immigrants before deportation. (Ernsthausen, Rosenberg and Asher-Schapiro, 4/11)
