Holy shyt this is a massive breach of privacy
IRS nears deal with ICE to share addresses of suspected undocumented immigrants
The move toward information
sharing comes as President Donald 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.
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 address 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 laws 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 known unlawful immigrants who already have been ordered to leave the country. 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, 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 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.
I came to post this.
this is nuts.