The U.S. government acknowledged in federal court for the first time that the Internal Revenue Service is sharing taxpayer data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as the Trump administration intensifies its deportation campaign.
The notice was filed on Aug. 12 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by a pair of Justice Department officials. It mentioned the deal forged earlier this year between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security establishing the basis for tax data to be used in deportation efforts.
A Treasury spokesperson said the data-sharing arrangement between IRS and DHS has been "litigated and determined to be a lawful application of Section 6103, which provides for information sharing by the IRS in precise circumstances associated with law enforcement requests."
Then a senior DHS official said in a statement that the redacted agreement "outlines a process to ensure that sensitive taxpayer information is protected, while allowing law enforcement to effectively pursue criminal violations."
Experts, though, say the ongoing data sharing between IRS and immigration authorities reverses longstanding taxpayer protections originally established by Congress. "This is a blow in decades of precedent that the IRS is not going to disclose taxpayer information except in extremely limited circumstances," said Tom Bowman, policy counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Many undocumented immigrants pay federal taxes. He argued it would cause many of them to think twice before filing tax returns containing home addresses, employers, and other personal information putting them at risk of deportation. Bowman added the tax data-sharing could cause "a total erosion of trust with immigrant communities."
The notice was filed four days after Billy Long was ousted as IRS commissioner. The Washington Post reported on Saturday that White House and IRS officials had clashed over employing taxpayer data to detain and deport suspected undocumented immigrants in the hours leading up to Long's removal. Long was later appointed to be the U.S. ambassador to Iceland.
Federal law shields sensitive taxpayer information and imposes strict guardrails on sharing it with other government agencies. Yet in April, the Treasury Department — which oversees the IRS — and DHS forged the opaque tax-data sharing agreement with the aim of accelerating the Trump administration's mass deportations.
The terms of the Treasury and DHS memorandum were only partially disclosed during an ongoing court fight initiated by a pair of immigrant advocacy groups seeking to prevent the IRS from unlawfully disclosing taxpayer information. It maintains that ICE officials can request information — such as a taxpayer's name or address — from the IRS about individuals subject to deportation or otherwise under criminal investigation.
Disclosure of the deal raised alarms among taxpayer advocates and Democratic lawmakers. A group of 47 House Democrats have demanded an unredacted copy of the data-sharing deal to no success so far. "We are concerned that this [deal] will result in grave consequences for taxpayers whose information is shared," the Democratic lawmakers wrote.
Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen is representing the two immigrant advocacy groups in court, and said they planned to file a legal brief on Aug. 22. "Plaintiffs are pursuing their appeal of the District Court’s denial of a preliminary injunction that would have blocked the IRS from sharing confidential taxpayer data with ICE," said Michael Kirkpatrick, a Public Citizen attorney involved in the lawsuit. "Our appeal is moving forward."