President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency has been granted access to a Department of Justice system that contains information on the case histories of millions of legal and illegal immigrants.
The DOJ approved access for about a half-dozen DOGE officials to the Executive Office for Immigration Review's Courts and Appeals System, The Washington Post reported Monday, citing documents it reviewed. The system, created in 2018, "supports the full life cycle of an immigration case" by maintaining "all records and case-related documents in electronic format," according to the DOJ's website.
DOJ staff members were instructed to begin preparing system accounts for the DOGE team, the documents showed. The team included former hedge fund staffer Adam Hoffman, as well as Payton Rehling and Jon Koval, both of whom work at a private-equity firm tied to DOGE chief Elon Musk, the Post reported. The team also includes Marko Elez, who resigned from the government in February after The Wall Street Journal linked him to a deleted social media account that allegedly made racist posts. He was rehired after Musk dismissed the significance of the posts.
It is not known what DOGE's mission is with accessing the system, but it could be part of expanding on President Donald Trump's efforts at the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, especially those who are violent criminals.
The Court and Appeals System holds records on millions of immigrants dating at least to the 1990s, the Post reported, citing a government official familiar with the system who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation because they were not authorized to discuss the situation.
The system is vast and comprehensive, the official said, containing such information as the names of immigrants, their attorneys, and family members, and their addresses. It also includes records of any interactions between immigrants and law enforcement or their state motor vehicles agency.
DOGE has had a presence within the DOJ since at least last month, the Post reported, when officials announced the creation of JUST-DOGE, a team of employees from both agencies tasked with identifying internal "savings and cost-cutting measures."
Last week, a DOGE staffer contacted a major recipient of the DOJ's grant funds, the Vera Institute of Justice, an independent nonprofit with no formal ties to the executive branch, seeking to access the organization. The Post could not confirm whether the access to the Court and Appeals System granted to DOGE last week is part of the work of the JUST-DOGE team or a separate endeavor.
Newsmax reached out to the DOJ for comment.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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