US Justice Dept. lets DOGE access sensitive immigration case data
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About a half-dozen DOGE “advisors” won approval from the Justice Department to access the ECAS system, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
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Elon Musk speaks during an event with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House, Washington, February 11, 2025 (Alex Brandon/AP)
Officials from the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have been granted entry to a highly restricted Justice Department database containing detailed information on millions of immigrants, both documented and undocumented, according to materials reviewed by The Washington Post.
The database, known as the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s Courts and Appeals System (ECAS), holds electronic records for individuals involved in the US immigration process. These records include names, home addresses, past court testimony, and any known encounters with law enforcement, among other data. According to the Justice Department’s website, “ECAS supports the full life cycle of an immigration case” by maintaining “all records and case-related documents in electronic format.”
A small group of approximately six DOGE “advisors” embedded at the Justice Department received approval from high-ranking officials last Friday to access ECAS, The Washington Post found.
The Justice Department declined to comment on Monday, and WaPo was unable to verify the reasons behind the access request or whether it was ultimately approved.
Internal communications revealed that department staff were directed to begin setting up ECAS profiles for members of the DOGE team, which includes Adam Hoffman, a former hedge fund staffer, and Payton Rehling and Jon Koval, both employed at a private-equity firm associated with Elon Musk.
Another team member, Marko Elez, had left the government earlier this year after being connected to a social media account that posted racist content, as reported by the Associated Press. The 25-year old engineer reportedly holds administrator-level privileges on systems that manage nearly all government payments, a responsibility that covers more than a fifth of the US economy. Elon Musk called for his rehiring shortly after he left, with the backing of Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
DODGE seeks access to personal data
DOGE has regularly sought access to personal data that individuals submitted for specific and legitimate reasons, such as filing taxes or applying for housing. This strategy has triggered concerns among privacy advocates, legal professionals, and government workers, who point out that the information DOGE is analyzing is generally restricted to specially trained personnel.
Just last week, DOGE-aligned officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) submitted a request to tap into a confidential Medicare database containing sensitive personal details, including medical records and addresses, in order to track individuals believed to be residing in the country unlawfully.
In another move, the Social Security Administration, responding to DOGE’s direction, labeled over 6,000 living immigrants as deceased to pressure them to leave the country. Meanwhile, the IRS agreed this month to share information with the Department of Homeland Security, suggesting that tax data might be used to identify up to 7 million suspected undocumented immigrants.
At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, DOGE personnel are also reportedly working to identify and remove households that include undocumented members, with the goal of denying public housing benefits to those lacking legal status, even if they live with US citizens.
Lynn Damiano Pearson, a senior staff attorney at the National Immigration Law Center, emphasized that DOGE’s efforts to access protected data raise serious privacy concerns for everyone, regardless of immigration status. She highlighted the unique sensitivity of ECAS: its contents include confidential court proceedings and are usually accessible only to immigrants themselves or their legal representatives.
“It really hearkens to what we’re seeing with Social Security, with the IRS, with data that was shared with an expectation of privacy,” Pearson said. She added that ECAS being used for other purposes would have “very concerning impacts for immigrants, even ones who have specifically tried to comply with government policies and do everything right, so to speak.”
