DHS and DOGE Build Central Searchable Database of Citizens

The Department of Homeland Security and “Department of Governmental Efficiency” created a searchable national data system of citizenship status for every USA-born and naturalized citizen.

DOGE is a subset of a White House IT team, not a government department.

The data system pulls together data from the Social Security Administration and immigration databases.

A central database of personal data about all Americans has long been anathema to privacy advocates, political conservatives, and people concerned about how it could be misused just as the Flock automatic license plate reading system has been misused by police.

The new data system is supposedly intended to help election officials make sure that only citizens are allowed to vote. Despite the cumbersome nature of verifying citizenship without a central reference, studies have found voter fraud is rare and the incidence of non-citizens voting is essentially nil.

This was built with no public process or scrutiny, with no clarity about how its data will be secured, with no assurance of reliability or trustworthiness, and with no establishment of safeguards to ensure it does not become a tool for mass surveillance or worse. Concern abound that it will be used for nefarious purposes. So far, nothing done by DOGE has been benign.

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