IRS Will Help ICE Find Illegals: This Service Has Data on Everyone Who Paid Taxes
'25.03.2025'
ForumDaily New York
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is close to an agreement to use its data to help US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) find illegal immigrants, it said. CNN.
The IRS is close to reaching an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to help find migrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.
The agreement will require ICE to provide the IRS with the names and addresses of people suspected of living in the country illegally. The IRS will then cross-check that information with its own and confirm the information.
Privacy protection
Tax information is generally kept by the IRS. Laws prohibit improper disclosure of taxpayer information. The IRS encourages illegal migrants file tax returns. This process involves providing the agency with their addresses, employers and income.
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DHS previously circulated a draft memo to the IRS that represented a broad request for information on suspected illegal immigrants, including the home addresses of several hundred thousand individuals who paid federal taxes based on their Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers.
Privacy experts say that would violate the strict disclosure laws under which the IRS operates, which prohibit agency employees from disclosing tax information.
In the current version, the IRS will verify addresses migrants, rather than providing information to ICE.
However, it would mark a significant change for the agency. Requests would have to be submitted by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem or Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons. Requests would have to include the taxpayer’s name and address, as well as the date of the removal order, which would allow the IRS to verify the information.
Earlier this month, two Chicago-based immigrant advocacy groups sued the Treasury Department and the IRS, asking a judge to bar the agency from sharing taxpayer identification information with ICE or DHS.
The groups argued that federal law “prohibits” the IRS from providing this data to immigration authorities. The tax code does not list ICE and DHS as exceptions to the privacy rules.
