IRS under Trump unlawfully shared taxpayer info with immigration authorities, court rules
The panel said the IRS likely violated federal privacy law by disclosing more than 47,000 taxpayer records in a program tied to immigration enforcement.
- On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld an injunction blocking an Internal Revenue Service policy that shared taxpayer addresses with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, citing violations of federal privacy law.
- Under a 2025 agreement, the IRS shared taxpayer records with ICE for mass deportation efforts, despite Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code restricting such disclosures to agencies meeting stringent conditions.
- Processing errors allowed ICE to obtain taxpayer information using invalid address entries like "Don't Care 12345," with over 90% of roughly 47,000 disclosed records processed through a matching system that failed to verify valid addresses.
- U.S. Circuit Judge Cornelia Pillard criticized the procedure as "weak sauce," finding the government faces potential damages for about 43,000 taxpayers whose return information was unlawfully shared under the now-blocked data-exchange arrangement.
- This ruling coincides with a broader legal challenge against the administration's expanded Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, as both cases reflect intensifying conflicts over federal data use for immigration and election enforcement ahead of November's elections.
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The controversial U.S. immigration agency ICE is no longer allowed access to confidential taxpayers' data from migrants without residence permits.
Court Trashes 'Weak Sauce' DOJ Excuse After IRS Data Sharing 'Flies In The Face' Of Law
A federal appeals court rejected the Justice Department's defense of an IRS program that gave immigration agents tens of thousands of taxpayer addresses in violation of a post-Watergate privacy law. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued the decision Tuesday, upholding a November order that halted the program. The IRS built the system last summer to answer a request from Immigration and Cus…
Court rules IRS unlawfully shared taxpayer data with ICE | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday upheld an injunction blocking an Internal Revenue Service policy that allowed it to share thousands of taxpayers’ addresses with immigration authorities, saying the Trump administration’s practice violated federal law.
The unanimous decision (3-0) is a setback to Donald Trump's government's efforts to collect data that could help the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) identify undocumented migrants for deportation. Taxpayers' information collected by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), such as homes, income and family data, is heavily protected by federal law. "The Watergate scandal exposed abuses of the executive power with information from U.S…
Court Slams IRS for Mass Handover of Taxpayer Addresses to ICE
A D.C. Circuit panel upheld an injunction blocking the IRS from sharing nearly 47,000 taxpayer addresses with ICE, ruling the Trump-era program violated strict federal privacy laws. The court found the agency disclosed data without required verification in over 42,000 cases. The decision reinforces longstanding taxpayer confidentiality protections.
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