Leaked memo reveals US veterans affairs officials vetting non-citizen workers

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is in the process of creating an urgent and massive new internal database of non-US citizens who are “employed or affiliated” with the government department, a sensitive memo leaked to the Guardian has revealed – prompting alarm within the sprawling agency over a potential immigration crackdown.

A VA spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian that the department would share some of the data it is now gathering with other federal agencies, including for immigration enforcement purposes.

“VA will share any adverse findings with the appropriate agencies to ensure anyone who is not authorized to be in the US is dealt with accordingly,” the spokesperson said, when asked if the VA would share the data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The agency added: “No one who is not an illegal immigrant has anything to worry about.”

However, likely thousands, including people legally in the US such as permanent residents with green cards and even military veterans themselves, now face being named in the forthcoming report about non-United States citizens, which seeks to further vet the VA workforce to varying degrees for “personnel suitability and national security standards,” according to the memo.

Top department officials, including veterans affairs secretary Doug Collins, are requiring VA offices across the country to turn over data on non-citizen “full-time and part-time employees, contractors, health professional trainees” and volunteers with the VA, according to the memo. Then, the office of operations, security and preparedness, an internal office overseeing security over VA operations, will compile the report for the VA secretary.

“By December 30, 2025, the office of operations, security, and preparedness must provide the secretary of veterans affairs a report of all non-United States citizens who are employed by or affiliated with VA,” the memo shown to the Guardian reads.

The memo was prepared by the VA chief of staff, Christopher Syrek, dated 15 November and sent to under-secretaries, assistant secretaries and “other key officials” in the department.

When asked by email about the reason for the report on non-US citizens being compiled, Pete Kasperowicz, a VA spokesperson said in a statement: “VA is required by federal law to continuously vet all employees and affiliates, such as unpaid researchers and others who may have access to VA data or systems, to ensure they meet the federal government’s trusted workforce standards.” He added: “The memo you reference is part of this process.”

Kasperowicz also included a link to the government’s workforce standards website related to vetting. But the website does not say anything about immigration status during “continuous vetting” processes.

The leaked memo makes no mention of any similar database or report being compiled on US citizens working with the VA, only focusing on non-citizens. Some current and former department officials are dismayed, the Guardian has learned, fearing the VA workforce is about to be targeted by Donald Trump’s aggressive anti-immigration agenda.

More than 450,000 people are employed at the VA, providing healthcare, education, rehabilitation and other services to veterans. The VA also works with thousands of contractors nationwide for day-to-day operations. It is the second biggest federal department after the Pentagon and provides healthcare, financial and many other services to millions of US military veterans.

The broad and vague nature of the memo implies the information dragnet may target a range of non-citizens, including doctors and nurses working in VA clinics, medical school students completing their clinical training at VA hospitals, scientists working in advancing medical research contracted by the department, volunteers working VA-related events, even contractors performing cleaning or maintenance jobs at facilities – and thousands more.

“List-making by the state is an authoritarian tactic meant to stoke fear. At the direction of Secretary Collins, the VA is persecuting noncitizen employees who provide essential services and benefits to our veterans,” said Illinois Democratic congresswoman Delia Ramirez, ranking member of the oversight and investigations subcommittee on the House veterans affairs committee, in a statement to the Guardian.

She added: “The reported memo could have far-reaching implications. Attacking immigrants authorized to work is just another way [US president] Trump and the [VA] Secretary seek to deconstruct, decimate, and demoralize the VA workforce.”

The memo does not say whether the data compiled would be shared with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the federal department that houses ICE and is carrying out the Trump administration’s “mass deportations” program. But the VA confirmed information would be shared with other agencies. This follows the Trump administration’s increasing push to collect and share data between other agencies and DHS for immigration enforcement purposes.

“Once information is collected on who is a non-citizen, and the exact status and posture of their protections and rights to be in the United States, it becomes incredibly easy for the federal government to make an effort to get that information,” said Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council. “This data collection and reporting is a form of intimidation, in a context where a list of names of non-citizens can so obviously get into the hands of an agency pursuing this agenda.”

The DHS referred all questions to the VA.

The memo says that all people who provide services to veterans and with access to VA facilities and information systems, must be “vetted and accounted for, in accordance with applicable laws and personnel suitability and national security policies and standards”. The memo outlines certain steps required by VA offices to pull data and compile it in a report.

“Failure to meet this requirement may result in physical or logical [sic] access termination and separation of unaccounted or unvetted personnel,” the document reads.

Syrek was also the department’s chief of staff under the first Trump administration. Collins, who now awaits the report, is a former US congressman and previously one of Trump’s personal attorneys.

It is likely the list will include the personal information of some veterans themselves. Over a quarter of the VA’s workforce is made up of veterans, and it is not a requirement to be a US citizen to serve in the military. In July the VA said it was on track to reduce its staff by 30,000.

“I think there have been a number of moves by the current administration that have had a chilling effect on folks’ desire to work at the Department of Veterans Affairs,” said Kayla Williams, a senior policy adviser at VoteVets and former assistant secretary of public and intergovernmental affairs at the VA.

“The amount of chaos that has already happened has really challenged the existing workforce … anything else that makes people think, ‘Maybe I wouldn’t be welcome,’ to me is a negative move that can really harm veterans.”

Tracking non-citizen workers may place veteran healthcare in peril, one expert said.

“This is just one more pile-on to the creation of a hostile work environment that jeopardizes patient safety,” said Suzanne Gordon, a senior policy analyst at the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute. “It’s extremely significant – they’re just adding another element to the fear and trepidation people feel when people come to work. And that’s really bad for patients.”

When asked if the VA was concerned that the non-citizen database would have an impact on workforce morale, Kasperowicz said: “Not at all. No one who is not an illegal immigrant has anything to worry about.”

On patient safety, the VA previously said in a statement to the Guardian for an article in August on cuts at the agency: “Anyone who says VA is cutting healthcare and benefits is not being honest,” citing a “nationwide shortage of healthcare workers.”

The Trump administration this year has pushed for further data-sharing between federal and local agencies – including with DHS and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arm.

In April, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agreed to share sensitive taxpayer information with ICE, a move that a federal judge blocked last month.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced in March it was partnering with the DHS to share data for immigration enforcement purposes

And the Trump administration just announced the health department would be providing sensitive information about some Medicaid recipients to ICE.