update - judge Xinis demands "daily updates" from DoJ re Abrego Garcia
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Inside the DOGE immigration task force
The taskforce, led by Musk confidante Antonio Gracias, is providing the technical infrastructure for a sweeping set of actions aimed at revoking parole and terminating visas.
Border Patrol agents and members of the military stand March 21 inside a gate in one of two border walls separating Mexico from the United States in San Diego. | Gregory Bull/AP
By Sophia Cai
04/11/2025 05:24 PM EDT
DOGE’s bread and butter has been slashing headcounts but it is now wielding its influence deep inside the nation’s immigration system — an initiative led by one of Elon Musk’s closest friends, three Trump administration officials granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics told POLITICO.
Antonio Gracias, a Musk confidante whose history with the billionaire goes back more than 20 years, is quietly heading up a specialized DOGE immigration task force that’s embedded engineers and staffers across nearly every nook of the Department of Homeland Security, two of the people said. The task force is also working with DOGE operatives stationed at other agencies like the Social Security Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, which house sensitive data on undocumented immigrants.
With Musk’s trusted friend and fixer at the helm, the task force marks a significant expansion of DOGE’s portfolio — from primarily working on agency-wide layoffs to executing the president’s most hardline immigration policies. It’s also a test for how far DOGE’s reach can extend.
Key DOGE engineers now embedded at DHS include Kyle Schutt, Edward Coristine, (aka “Big Balls”) and Mark Elez, according to their government email addresses. At least two others, Aram Moghaddassi and Payton Rehling also have access to DHS data, as DOGE fingerprints are spread throughout DHS, including Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure and Security Agency.
They are providing the technical infrastructure for a sweeping set of actions aimed at revoking parole, terminating visas, and later on, reengineering the asylum adjudication process, according to the officials.
Their first mission: implement parole terminations for 6,300 undocumented immigrants who either have criminal records or are on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist. That effort required coordinating with the Social Security Administration to have their Social Security numbers effectively canceled by adding them to a database that tracks dead people, the New York Times and the Washington Post first reported. Their theory is that without effective Social Security numbers – needed for bank accounts and loans, among other things – these people would “self deport.”
Last week, the plan was finalized in a high-level White House meeting with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Gracias and other senior DOGE staffers and White House officials, two of the officials said.In recent weeks, the Trump administration has moved aggressively in its effort to revoke parole, visas and temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of immigrants and students, many of whom were granted the ability to legally study and work in the United States in the short-term under Biden administration policies.
But what actually happens in the government’s IT systems to make sure that those people are eligible for deportation? Who makes sure that that is reflected in the database?
That is where DOGE comes in to comb through datasets at all relevant agencies and facilitate data-sharing between agencies so the enforcement actions can be carried out systematically and at-scale, one of administration officials said.
“DOGE is working in all the agencies. We are looking at our books, at people who don’t belong here that Joe Biden allowed in with bogus claims,” said a White House official. “They shouldn’t be receiving federal tax dollars in the form of government benefits.”
“The government is finally doing what it should have all along,” said Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs. “Information sharing across agencies is essential to identify who is in our country, including violent criminals, and determine what public safety and terror threats may exist.”
Critics including Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) say declaring people “dead” at Social Security – an act that’s hard to undo if done incorrectly – risks taking away legally earned benefits and victimizing those who had their identities stolen or who have naturalized.
The task force signals how central Gracias has become to the execution of Trump’s policy agenda, and how deeply Musk’s imprint remains on federal operations, even if he longer spends all of his time in Washington.
“From DC to the border, there are very good people at CBP who pointed this tragedy to us,” Gracias posted on X, linking to a DOGE statement about the 6,300 flagged individuals.
DOGE claims more than 900 of the 6,300 flagged individuals whose parole status is being revoked were collecting Medicaid, 41 received unemployment insurance, and 22 had federal student loans.
We'll see how it plays out.
This is what many of us expected when the SC ruled as it did.
