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The IRS Agreement to share tax data with ICE is raising alarm among immigrant advocates and
lawmakers.
According to CNN: “Acting Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Melanie Krause informed her staff
last week that she is leaving the agency amid internal chaos and the exodus of several senior IRS
officials, according to two current IRS employees and one former IRS employee.
Krause’s decision to accept the agency’s deferred resignation offer comes on the heels of the IRS and
Department of Homeland Security finalizing an agreement Monday to provide sensitive taxpayer data to
federal immigration authorities to help the Trump administration locate and deport undocumented
immigrants.”
In a move that has stirred widespread concern among immigrant advocates and privacy experts, the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has signed an agreement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) that allows immigration officers to request tax information about certain undocumented
immigrants. The unprecedented memorandum of understanding (MOU) was quietly made public through
a court filing this week, marking a significant shift in the use of confidential taxpayer data.
The agreement, signed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi
Noem, permits ICE to request information from the IRS on immigrants who are under criminal
investigation or who have final orders of removal—particularly those who remain in the U.S. beyond the
90-day departure deadline.
While the Treasury Department claims the deal “establishes a clear and secure process” for law
enforcement to combat illegal immigration, details of the arrangement remain murky. Large portions of the
15-page document are redacted, including key elements that would clarify the scope of data ICE can
access or the specific protections in place for affected individuals.
Advocates say the move represents a serious breach of trust.
“The IRS’s decision to share confidential information with the Department of Homeland Security threatens
the safety of thousands of workers while forcing them further into the shadows,” said Murad Awawdeh,
CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition. “Instead of punishing people who contribute and comply with
our tax laws, our government should be working to protect their rights and build trust.”
For years, the IRS has encouraged undocumented immigrants to voluntarily pay taxes using Individual
Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs), with consistent assurances that their data would remain
confidential. Immigrants without legal status contribute billions of dollars annually to federal revenue,
helping to fund essential public services, from education to emergency response programs.
But now, with ICE potentially able to tap into IRS records, advocates worry that this long-standing
relationship of trust is at risk. If undocumented workers begin to fear that tax compliance could lead to
detention or deportation, many may choose to avoid filing returns altogether—potentially weakening
federal revenues and fueling the growth of an unregulated shadow economy.
A growing number of Democratic lawmakers share these concerns. Last month, dozens signed a letter
urging Secretaries Noem and Bessent to abandon the agreement. “If immigrants fear that filing taxes
could expose them to deportation, many will choose not to file,” the letter warned. “This would increase
deficits and shift a higher proportion of the tax burden onto American citizens.”
The Treasury Department insists the MOU is grounded in longstanding congressional authority and is
designed to protect “law-abiding Americans” while enabling law enforcement to pursue criminals. Yet
critics argue that the implementation of such authority—without transparency or clear limits—undermines
the principle of presumed innocence.
“This isn’t just about unauthorized immigrants,” said Angela Jiménez, a community organizer in El Paso.
“This is about the precedent it sets. If the government can use tax information for immigration
enforcement today, who’s to say what they’ll use it for tomorrow?”
Local and social media channels have already lit up with stories of fear and confusion among immigrant
communities. Reports of individuals being detained mere hours after visits from ICE have circulated
widely. In one case, three university scholars—Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, and Badar Khan
Suri—were arrested and transferred to detention centers in Louisiana within a day, sparking speculation
that confidential data had played a role in their swift apprehension.
While the Biden administration has previously touted tools like the CBP One app to bring order and
humanity to border enforcement, the new IRS-ICE agreement appears to move in the opposite
direction—intensifying the criminalization of immigrant populations and eroding public trust.
For now, it remains unclear when information-sharing under the new framework will begin. But as legal
challenges mount and immigrant advocates mobilize, the deal is already casting a long shadow over tax
season—and threatening to turn the basic act of filing a return into a potential act of self-incrimination.
Admittedly, illegal integration is a crime, but Trump overreach, seemingly tends to assume that we are all
guilty until proven innocent. This approach can only prove and verify the identity of potential perps
through invasive data collection of all of us.
It is certainly not difficult to imagine a day when authorized data already collected might become tawdry
and unfulfilling to their scope of work. This may lead them to broaden their appetite and peer into adjacent
files, in search of anything they may have missed.
