IRS can only give tax data to ICE in deportation, criminal cases

The IRS can share taxpayer data with federal immigration officials only in cases involving immigrants with final deportation orders or ongoing criminal investigations, according to a newly unsealed agreement between the Treasury and Homeland Security departments.

The 13-page memo, signed in April by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, was released Tuesday by order of a federal court in Washington. It permits Immigration and Customs Enforcement to request tax records under a section of the tax code that allows limited disclosures for non-tax criminal matters.

While the memo doesn’t specify what criminal cases may qualify, it does specify other rules. To obtain IRS data, ICE must provide a name, address, and deportation order date, and it’s required to safeguard any information received. 

By agreeing to share taxpayer data at all, the IRS is taking an unprecedented step that breaks with longstanding assurances that such information wouldn’t be used to aid in immigration enforcement. Melanie Krause resigned as the acting IRS commissioner last month as the data-sharing arrangement was finalized.

A federal judge on Monday ordered the mostly redacted IRS-ICE agreement to be “almost entirely unsealed” in response to a request from the watchdog group American Oversight. In the same ruling, the judge denied a request from two Chicago-based immigrant advocacy groups to block the data-sharing arrangement, saying they lacked standing to challenge it. 

Immigrants have for decades been encouraged to pay income taxes regardless of their status. In 1996, the IRS created an individual taxpayer identification number for foreigners who don’t qualify for a Social Security number, allowing them to file returns. 

The Trump administration, as part of a broader effort to kick start its promised mass deportation effort, has reinstituted a World War II-era immigrant-registration system and has vowed to fine and criminally charge those in the US without permission who fail to register.

The White House has argued that the data is necessary to help ICE agents confirm the ongoing presence of specific foreigners living in the US illegally. A DHS spokeswoman has repeatedly defended the arrangement, arguing that the administration is using all available tools to help find immigrants in the county without permission.