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A senior Social Security Administration (SSA) executive was forcibly removed from his office following internal opposition to a controversial federal data initiative involving DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency.
Greg Pearre, a veteran civil servant and IT leader at the SSA, had reportedly resisted DOGE's proposal to alter the agency’s internal data systems in a way that would remove access to financial services for thousands of legally residing migrants. According to three sources cited by the Washington Post, Pearre’s resistance culminated in a physical confrontation and his subsequent removal from his workplace.
DOGE, a department led by Elon Musk, has been working on a strategy to target immigrants who received temporary legal status under the Biden administration. The approach involves listing those individuals as deceased in the Social Security Administration’s “death master file”, a system widely relied upon by financial institutions, insurers, and government agencies to verify eligibility and identity.
Database manipulation triggers operational concerns
Entering someone into the death master file effectively erases their financial identity, leading to the loss of benefits, the inability to use bank accounts or credit cards, and other disruptions. A civil lawsuit in Maryland, for example, alleges that an individual wrongly listed as deceased was left without access to essential services.
Consumer lawyer Jim Francis, representing the plaintiff in that case, explained that the death file’s impact reaches far beyond government systems. “It’s the source of that data that the whole world uses,” he told the Post. “Overnight, you literally become financially paralyzed.”
The use of the database in this manner has alarmed many inside the agency. Around a dozen career civil servants were reportedly directed to work on the plan alongside officials from the Department of Homeland Security. Some questioned the legality of the scheme, warning that it could violate civil rights and government data regulations.
Even SSA Acting Commissioner Leland Dudek, who had previously shown willingness to implement DOGE-led directives, expressed concern over the proposal’s legal grounding.
Nonetheless, under mounting pressure from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Dudek signed off on two memorandums authorizing the database update on Monday. The move resulted in more than 6,000 migrants being marked as deceased, despite being alive.
DOGE workplace fallout raises HR red flags
The conflict between Pearre and DOGE comes at a moment of heightened tension across federal agencies, where long-serving civil servants are navigating rapidly shifting policy directives and potential violations of HR protocols. Pearre’s removal - described by sources as physical - raises workplace assault concerns and shines a spotlight on the growing friction between politically-appointed leadership and career officials.
Neither Pearre nor Dudek commented on the incident. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the administration’s position, saying: “Anyone who disagrees with the common sense policies of this Administration can find a new job.”
The fallout from the database changes and the reported workplace confrontation is expected to intensify scrutiny over DOGE’s methods and the administration’s approach to immigration enforcement through administrative systems. Certainly, HR departments will be forced to deal with problematical and volatile situations as workers and management push back over the proposed cuts and the way they are being enforced.
