DOGE is building a master database for immigration enforcement, sources say

Staffers from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency are building a master database to speed-up immigration enforcement and deportations, by combining sensitive data from across the federal government, multiple sources familiar with the plans tell CNN.

Staffers from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency are building a master database to speed-up immigration enforcement and deportations by combining sensitive data from across the federal government, multiple sources familiar with the plans tell CNN. The goal is to create a massive repository of data pulled from various agencies, according to sources familiar with the project who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to talk about it. The administration has previously sought to centralize information from a number of agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration and Health and Human Services, among others. Palantir, a Silicon Valley data-analytics company co-founded by a Musk ally that has been used by immigration officials before for criminal investigations, is involved in building out the database. The company has long been ingesting and processing data from multiple ICE and DHS sources. The latest endeavor, however, is expected to go further by identifying people with civil immigration violations. “If they are designing a deportation machine, they will be able to do that,” a former senior IRS employee with knowledge of the plans told CNN. Allowing streamlined access to highly protected information – for immigration enforcement purposes – has been the subject of ongoing legal challenges. Democratic lawmakers have slammed the plan, with one claiming DOGE is “rapidly, haphazardly, and unlawfully” exploiting Americans’ personal data. Trump officials see the project as a way to overcome a major hurdle: quickly building “targeting lists” that Immigration and Customs Enforcement can use to find, detain and deport migrants in the US. It’s part of a concerted effort, under pressure from the White House, to ramp up enforcement and increase deportations.