The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are about to reach an agreement that will allow ICE to access taxpayer information to find illegal immigrants who have been deported.
According to a report in the Washington Post, a historic agreement will allow ICE to submit names and addresses of illegal immigrants to cross-check IRS tax records, a long-standing shift in IRS policy aimed at keeping taxpayer information strictly confidential.
The current draft agreement obtained by the Washington Post will restrict ICE to confirm the addresses of illegal immigrants who ultimately revoke the order, while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and agent ice company Todd Lyons will be the only two people authorized to submit requests to the IRS.
Trump allies argue that court orders to stop deportation “unconstitutional obstruction” executive branch
Strengthening immigration enforcement has been a priority for the Trump administration, mainly through the Department of Homeland Security, supervised by Secretary Kristi Noem. (Getty Image)
The draft agreement language authorizes the verification of address of individuals “criminal investigation” in violation of immigration laws, leveraging narrow exceptions to IRS privacy laws, allowing the use of taxpayer data to aid criminal investigations.
The report noted that some senior IRS officials expressed concern about the agreement, believing that the narrow exceptions are only used for criminal investigations rather than immigration enforcement. Officials also fear that the policy would hinder taxes on illegal immigrants, although illegal immigrants remain in federal taxes.
The report noted that the IRS has been illegally immigrating for years to assure that its tax information is confidential, a policy that helped them collect more than 5 million tax returns from undocumented immigrants.
Obtaining tax records can help ICE deport illegal immigrants. (ice)
The Justice Department told federal judges it could invoke state secrets laws regarding cases of deportation
The news came as President Donald Trump continued to strengthen his deportation efforts he promised during the campaign, as the president tried to use all available resources to help immigration officials.
Doug O’Donnell, a long-time IRS employee who served as IRS commissioner last month, resigned suddenly after turning down the date for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requesting more than 700,000 illegal immigrants.
The IRS headquarters building appears to be empty on April 27, 2020 in the Federal Triangle District of Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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O’Donnell was replaced by Melanie Krause, the report noted that he showed greater willingness to work with the DHS.
The agreement between the IRS and ICE has not been completed. Neither agency immediately responded to a request for digital comment from Fox News.
