The Internal Revenue Service has agreed to share tax information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for the purpose of identifying and deporting undocumented immigrants, according to a newly disclosed memorandum of understanding signed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
The agreement, signed Monday and revealed in federal court filings, allows ICE to submit the names and addresses of individuals believed to be in the U.S. without legal status to the IRS for verification against tax records.
A Treasury official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the measure is grounded in “longstanding authorities granted by Congress, which serve to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans while streamlining the ability to pursue criminals.”
The Department of the Treasury says the agreement supports President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts, which have included increased deportations, workplace raids, and the use of wartime legal provisions to expel certain migrants.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told reporters Tuesday at the Border Security Expo in Phoenix that the new data-sharing arrangement will aid in identifying people “kind of hiding in plain sight” and using false identities to collect benefits. “Working with Treasury and other departments is strictly for the major criminal cases,” he said.
According to the memo, “DHS can legally request return information relating to individuals under criminal investigation, and the IRS must provide it.” The document also states that both agencies “will perform their duties in a manner that recognises and enhances individuals’ right of privacy.”
In February, Noem had requested that Bessent assign IRS Criminal Investigation employees to assist with immigration-related operations.
How it affected undocumented immigrants
The NYU Tax Law Center wrote Monday that the agreement “threatens to violate the rights that many more Americans have under longstanding laws that protect their tax information from wrongful disclosure or dissemination.”
“IRS officials who sign off on data sharing under these circumstances risk breaking the law, which could result in criminal and civil sanctions,” the center said.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the data-sharing agreement is “essential to identify who is in our country, including violent criminals, determine what public safety and terror threats may exist so we can neutralize them, scrub these individuals from voter rolls, as well as identify what public benefits these aliens are using at the American taxpayer expense.”
Undocumented immigrants contribute billions of dollars in tax revenue annually. Advocates warn that sharing tax data with immigration enforcement could discourage undocumented workers from filing taxes, potentially pushing more into the informal economy.
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