DOGE Operatives at Department of Labor Reportedly Have…

DOGE Operatives at Department of Labor Reportedly Have Access to Sensitive Data on Immigrants, Farm Workers

U.S. Department of Labor (Credit: Creative Commons)

Operatives from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a unit created under President Trump and associated with Elon Musk, have gained access to sensitive data systems at the Department of Labor (DOL) that contain information on immigrants and low-income farm workers, according to a report by WIRED.

The operatives' access includes databases that house personal data such as Social Security numbers, employment histories, and immigration-related identifiers.

According to the report, one DOGE operative, Miles Collins, has access to the National Farmworker Jobs Program (NFJP), which provides job training and services to low-income migrant and seasonal farm workers legally authorized to work in the U.S. A Department of Labor employee told the news site that this system could expose detailed information about beneficiaries, including Social Security numbers and the type of aid received.

"This kind of data," the employee said, "is normally very, very controlled."

Another operative, Aram Moghaddassi, was granted access to the Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG), a system that supports wage protections and visa programs for temporary and permanent foreign workers. Information in FLAG includes names, addresses, work history, and "alien registration numbers" tied to DHS records.

All three known DOGE operatives at the DOL—Collins, Moghaddassi, and Marko Elez—also have access to data from the Reentry Employment Opportunities (REO) program. While REO does not specifically target immigrants, cross-referencing it with other data could identify noncitizen beneficiaries, raising concerns among internal sources about targeting individuals based on immigration status.

The Washington Post reported earlier in the week that DOGE operatives and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are working across multiple federal agencies to access information that could be used in immigration enforcement, including data from the IRS, Social Security Administration and Housing and Urban Development.

Another report by the outlet, also from this week, revealed that the Trump administration is looking at a sensitive Medicare database which is managed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and includes both health information and home addresses

While The White House has not commented on this report, a DHS official defended the practice, saying the federal government is "finally doing what it should have all along: sharing information across the federal government to solve problems."

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