The Internal Revenue Service is nearing an agreement to allow immigration officials to use tax data to confirm the names and addresses of people suspected of being in the country illegally, according to four people familiar with the matter, culminating weeks of negotiations over using the tax system to support President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
Under the agreement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement could submit names and addresses of suspected undocumented immigrants to the IRS to cross-reference with confidential taxpayer databases, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of professional reprisals.
Normally, personal tax information – even an individual’s name and address – is considered confidential and closely guarded within the IRS. Unlawfully disclosing tax data carries civil and criminal penalties.
However, tax information may be shared with other federal law enforcement under certain, limited conditions – and typically with approval from a court. It would be unusual, if not unprecedented, for taxpayer privacy law exceptions to be used to justify cooperation with immigration enforcement, the people said.
The proposed agreement has alarmed career officials at the IRS, the people said, who worry that the arrangement risks abusing a narrow and seldom-used section of privacy law that’s meant to help investigators build criminal cases, not enforce criminal penalties.
According to portions of a draft of the agreement obtained by The Washington Post, ICE access to tax data would be limited to confirming the addresses of immigrants with final removal orders. Requests could be submitted only by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem or acting ICE director Todd Lyons, the memo says, and must include the name and address of each taxpayer, the date of their order for removal and other identifying information that would allow the IRS to verify the taxpayer’s identity. The agreement would authorize data verification for people “subject to criminal investigation” for violating immigration law.
Representatives for the Treasury Department and DHS, the parent agencies of the IRS and ICE, respectively, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
If approved, the agreement would represent a significant shift in how federal agencies manage both taxpayer information and immigration enforcement. The IRS has for years reassured undocumented workers that their tax information is confidential and that it is safe for them to file income tax returns without fear of being deported. About half – possibly more – of the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country file income tax returns to document their payments to the U.S. government, according to researchers.
“It is a complete betrayal of 30 years of the government telling immigrants to file their taxes,” one former IRS official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution.
The move toward information-sharing comes as Trump pushes his administration to use every resource to conduct what he hopes will be the largest mass deportation of immigrants in U.S. history.
For weeks, immigration enforcement officials have tried to dramatically ramp up arrests, aiming for at least 1,200 to 1,500 per day, using a series of aggressive and unconventional tactics. Among them: recruiting the help of agencies not usually involved with immigration enforcement, invoking the centuries-old Alien Enemies Act to send Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador and expanding the government’s power to expel migrants without a court hearing.
While Trump and his top aides vowed to focus on immigrants in the country illegally or convicted of committing a violent crime, recent enforcement actions have ensnared thousands of migrants and immigrants who have authorization to be in the country.
Meanwhile, DHS on Friday eliminated three internal watchdog agencies that advocated for immigrants and investigated complaints about detention conditions, the care of migrant children and delays in processing applications for green cards or citizenship. DHS officials said the offices created bureaucratic hurdles that obstructed the agency’s work.
The potential agreement with the IRS would probably mark the first time immigration officials have turned to the tax system for large-scale enforcement assistance. Undocumented workers’ wages are subject to the same tax withholding and reporting requirements that apply to other U.S. residents. Many immigrants file tax returns and save them in hopes that a record of paying taxes will one day help them make a case to apply for legal residency. The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act granted permanent legal status to undocumented migrants who had paid back taxes, among other requirements.
On its website, the IRS says undocumented immigrants “are subject to U.S. taxes in spite of their illegal status.” Because most are ineligible for Social Security numbers, the IRS allows them instead to file with individual taxpayer numbers, known as ITINs.
If approved, the agreement to share taxpayer information with ICE would mark a sharp reversal from just a few weeks ago. Last month, IRS leadership rejected a DHS request for the names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of 700,000 people the Trump administration suspected of being in the country illegally.
The acting IRS commissioner at the time, Doug O’Donnell, and agency attorneys concluded both requests were unlawful. O’Donnell retired the next day, after 38 years at the tax agency. His successor, Melanie Krause, quickly signaled an interest in collaborating with Homeland Security officials, The Post has reported.
Two weeks later, the Trump administration also replaced the IRS’s top attorney, who had voiced opposition to attempts to share taxpayer data across agencies, including by Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service.
Krause and the IRS’s new acting chief counsel, Andrew De Mello, have since met multiple times with Treasury and DHS officials to hash out an agreement, three of the people said.
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