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By Jordan King
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Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has reportedly been granted access to sensitive immigration case data.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) gave permission to a team of six DOGE "advisors" to access the Executive Office for Immigration Review's Courts and Appeals System (ECAS) on Friday, according to documents seen by The Washington Post.
Why It Matters
ECAS includes millions of confidential records from immigration court cases, ranging from asylum claims to personal biographical information.
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It is not explicitly clear what DOGE's mission with this data is but it could be part of President Donald Trump's to crack down on illegal immigration.
Newsweek has contacted the DOJ, via email, and DOGE, via direct message on X, for comment.
What To Know
Staff members at the DOJ were instructed to start preparing ECAS accounts for the DOGE team, according to The Post.
The DOGE team of six reportedly includes Marko Elez, a staffer who resigned from the government in February in the wake of a scandal over his association with a social media account that promoted racism and eugenics, which was reported by The Post at the time.
He was re-hired by Musk after the billionaire launched a poll on X asking people what they thought and after Vice President JD Vance backed the move, saying: "I don't think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life."
It comes after The Post's reports last week about DOGE, along with U.S. immigration officials, seeking to use a sensitive Medicare database as part of their crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
The database is believed to keep a record of personal information, including addresses, beneficiary information, Medicare claims and more.
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What People Are Saying
The DOJ's website says: "ECAS supports the full life cycle of an immigration case including: electronic filing of court and appeals documents, processing and receiving filings, maintaining electronic Records of Proceedings (ROPs), preparing case information, conducting a hearing, and adjudicating appeals, while providing cost and time savings for all parties."
Speaking about federal entitlement programs, Musk told Fox Business: "The waste and fraud in entitlement spending—which is most of the federal spending is entitlements—so, that's, like, the big one to eliminate. That's the, sort of half-trillion, maybe $6-700 billion a year."
White House spokesperson Elizabeth Huston said in a statement: "President Trump promised mass deportations, and by removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come and stay, we will encourage them to self-deport. He is delivering on his promise he made to the American people."
What Happens Next
It is not yet completely clear what DOGE will do with ECAS data. Congressional Democrats are pushing for investigations into DOGE's operations and its handling of sensitive data.
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