Local leaders and advocates held a news conference in the Loop on Monday morning to speak out about recent staffing cuts and changes to Social Security that they say will hit the most vulnerable the hardest.
In Federal Plaza, Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia criticized the administration of President Donald Trump for terminating thousands of workers from the Social Security Administration, which could potentially lead to cutting half of the agency’s entire staff.
That comes after the closure of 47 Social Security offices throughout the country, including 26 this month. No offices in Illinois have thus far been closed.
“They say it’s about efficiency, but we know the truth,” Garcia said. “This isn’t about Americans, it’s about the rich getting richer. … This is not just bad policy, this is a civil rights crisis.”
The federal government also recently classified more than 6,000 living immigrants as dead and canceled their Social Security numbers, meaning they cannot legally get a job, collect Social Security benefits or receive certain government benefits. This also makes it harder to open bank accounts or enroll their children in schools.
Many of the immigrants affected by that move had been allowed to remain in the U.S. for two years with work authorization under presidential parole authority by the Biden administration, but many had their status revoked by Customs and Border Patrol this month.
Garcia also criticized the gutting of Spanish-language services at some federal agencies, calling the move “discrimination.”
“These cuts hit people who need it the most: seniors, people with disabilities and, of course, immigrants,” Garcia said. “The real fraud is immigrants have contributed over $580 million to Social Security, money they’ll never see or benefit from while being excluded from the very system they sustained.”
It comes less than a week after former President Joe Biden criticized Trump’s cuts and changes to the Social Security Administration at the 2025 national conference of Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled in Chicago, in his first public appearance since leaving office.
He was introduced by former Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley, who said Trump and Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, have “gutted the Social Security Administration with a chainsaw.”
“What the hell are they talking about? People earn these benefits. They paid into that benefit. They rely on that benefit,” Biden said. “And no one, no one, no one should take it away.”
Richard Juarez, executive director of Solutions for Care, said many of the seniors his organization works with said their calls to Social Security offices were being dropped, among other complications they faced.
“If there is a delayed check or lost claim, it can throw [seniors’] lives into chaos. They’ll skip meals, skip payments, their health will decline,” Juarez said. “Together we have the responsibility to protect our elders, which means staffing the Social Security Administration properly. … We’re not going to wait for this crisis to get worse, we are raising our voices now.”
Contributing: AP, Tina Sfondeles