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Federal Judge Rules IRS Illegally Disclosed Taxpayer Data to Immigration Authorities
A federal judge has determined that the Internal Revenue Service violated federal law by improperly sharing confidential taxpayer information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tens of thousands of times.
In a significant ruling issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly found that the IRS broke the law “approximately 42,695 times” by disclosing protected taxpayer address information to ICE. The judge called this revelation “a significant development” in the ongoing legal battle over information sharing between the two federal agencies.
The ruling stems from a controversial agreement signed last year between the Treasury and Homeland Security departments that allows ICE to submit names and addresses of immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally to the IRS for verification against tax records.
According to a declaration filed by Dottie Romo, the IRS’s chief risk and control officer, the tax agency provided DHS with information on 47,000 individuals out of 1.28 million people that ICE requested. In the vast majority of those cases, the IRS supplied additional address information that violated strict privacy protections established under IRS Code 6103 – one of the most stringent confidentiality laws in federal statute.
“The IRS not only failed to ensure that ICE’s request for confidential taxpayer address information met the statutory requirements, but this failure led the IRS to disclose confidential taxpayer addresses to ICE in situations where ICE’s request for that information was patently deficient,” Judge Kollar-Kotelly wrote in her decision.
The ruling provides substantial support for opponents of the data-sharing arrangement, who have maintained that the practice undermines taxpayer privacy and trust in the tax system. Nina Olson, founder of the Center for Taxpayer Rights, which has sued the government over the disclosure, said the ruling “confirms what we’ve been saying all along: that the IRS has an unlawful policy that violates the Internal Revenue Code’s protections.”
The data-sharing agreement, signed in April by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, was controversial from the start. The arrangement was so contentious that it reportedly led to the resignation of the then-acting commissioner of the IRS.
The government is appealing the case, but Thursday’s ruling strengthens the position of those challenging the agreement. Judge Kollar-Kotelly’s findings, based on the IRS’s own internal declaration, provide concrete evidence that the agency violated federal law by improperly sharing protected information.
Despite this ruling, the legal landscape surrounding the agreement remains complex. Earlier this week, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declined to issue a preliminary injunction requested by immigrants’ rights groups, including Centro de Trabajadores Unidos. Judge Harry T. Edwards wrote that the nonprofit organizations “are unlikely to succeed on the merits of their claim,” arguing that the information being shared isn’t covered by the IRS privacy statute.
Nevertheless, two separate court orders remain in effect that limit the scope of the agreement. These preliminary injunctions block the agencies from conducting massive transfers of taxpayer information and prevent ICE from acting upon any IRS data already in its possession.
The case highlights the tension between immigration enforcement efforts and taxpayer privacy protections. Privacy advocates argue that using tax information for immigration enforcement undermines the tax system by discouraging undocumented immigrants from filing taxes, while enforcement supporters contend the data sharing is necessary for identifying individuals in the country illegally.
Neither the IRS nor the Treasury Department responded to requests for comment from the Associated Press regarding the judge’s ruling.
As litigation continues, the ultimate fate of the data-sharing agreement remains uncertain, with significant implications for both tax administration and immigration enforcement policies.
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16 Comments
Wow, that’s a pretty serious violation of taxpayer privacy by the IRS. Sharing confidential tax data with immigration authorities without legal justification is concerning. I wonder what the fallout will be and how the IRS plans to address this breach of trust.
Absolutely, the IRS needs to be held accountable for these unlawful disclosures. Taxpayers deserve to have their sensitive financial information protected, not handed over to other agencies without proper authorization.
Wow, this is a huge violation of taxpayer privacy by the IRS. Sharing confidential tax data with ICE tens of thousands of times without justification is extremely troubling. I hope this ruling leads to significant reforms and accountability measures to prevent such breaches in the future.
Absolutely, the IRS needs to be held accountable for these unlawful disclosures. Taxpayers have a reasonable expectation of privacy, and the agency cannot simply hand over sensitive financial information to other government entities without proper legal authorization. This is a major betrayal of public trust.
This is a very concerning development. The IRS has a fundamental duty to safeguard taxpayer data, not hand it over to other agencies for potentially improper purposes. I hope this ruling leads to a thorough investigation and meaningful consequences for those responsible.
I agree, the IRS clearly failed in its obligations here. Taxpayers deserve to have their personal financial information kept strictly confidential, not shared with immigration authorities without proper legal authorization. This is a major breach of trust that needs to be addressed.
This is a very serious breach of taxpayer privacy by the IRS. Sharing confidential tax data with immigration authorities tens of thousands of times without proper legal justification is completely unacceptable. I hope this ruling leads to significant changes and reforms to ensure this never happens again.
I agree, the IRS clearly overstepped its authority here. Taxpayers deserve to have their sensitive financial information protected, not freely shared with other agencies. This kind of systemic violation of privacy rights is very concerning and needs to be addressed through meaningful accountability and policy changes.
This is a major breach of taxpayer privacy by the IRS. Sharing sensitive financial data with immigration authorities without proper legal justification is unacceptable. I hope this ruling leads to significant reforms and safeguards to prevent such egregious violations in the future.
Absolutely. The IRS needs to be held to the highest standards when it comes to protecting taxpayer information. This kind of systemic disclosure of confidential data is a serious betrayal of the public’s trust that cannot be tolerated.
The IRS’s actions here are deeply troubling. Taxpayers have a fundamental right to privacy when it comes to their financial information, which the agency appears to have violated on a massive scale. I hope this ruling leads to serious consequences and reforms to prevent such egregious breaches in the future.
Absolutely. The IRS has a core responsibility to safeguard taxpayer data, not facilitate its misuse by other government entities. This kind of systemic disclosure of confidential information is an alarming abuse of power that undermines public trust in the tax system. Significant changes are clearly needed.
This is a troubling abuse of power by the IRS. Taxpayers should be able to trust that their personal information will be kept confidential, not shared with immigration authorities without due process. It will be interesting to see what penalties the IRS faces for these unlawful disclosures.
I agree, the IRS clearly overstepped its legal authority here. Taxpayers have a reasonable expectation of privacy, which seems to have been violated on a massive scale. There needs to be serious consequences for this kind of systemic breach of trust.
This is a major violation of taxpayer privacy by the IRS. Sharing confidential tax data with immigration authorities tens of thousands of times without legal justification is completely unacceptable. I hope this ruling leads to serious consequences for those responsible and comprehensive reforms to prevent such breaches in the future.
I agree, the IRS has seriously betrayed the public’s trust here. Taxpayers deserve to have their sensitive financial information protected, not freely shared with other agencies without proper authorization. This kind of systematic disclosure of confidential data is deeply troubling and needs to be addressed through meaningful accountability measures.