UNUSUAL

IRS Finalizing Deal With ICE to Share Data on Undocumented Immigrants

The agreement would help with President Donald Trump’s broader deportation efforts.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is reportedly close to finalizing an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that would allow agency officials to use tax data to confirm the names and addresses of people suspected of being in the United States illegally. Citing sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, The Washington Post reports that the agreement would permit ICE to send the IRS the names and addresses of suspected undocumented immigrants to cross-reference with confidential taxpayer information. Personal tax information is closely guarded within the IRS and is only ever shared with federal law enforcement under extraordinary circumstances, oftentimes with court approval. The agreement would help streamline President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts. According to The Post, around half of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. file income tax returns. A former IRS official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told The Post that the move “is a complete betrayal of 30 years of the government telling immigrants to file their taxes.”