The Trump administration confirmed in federal court that there are "ongoing discussions" between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about sharing taxpayer data that could potentially be used to deport undocumented immigrants.
The disclosure took pace at a hearing in which two immigrant rights organizations sought to block the IRS from sharing noncitizen taxpayer records with ICE. There, Department of Justice attorney Andrew Weisberg stated that "there are ongoing conversations... about the exchange of information" between the IRS and DHS, although no action has been taken, as CNN reports.
The hearing itself resulted in U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich ruling that the plaintiffs, Centro De Trabajadores Unidos and Immigrant Solidarity DuPage, had not sufficiently demonstrated that the IRS was poised to unlawfully disclose taxpayer information to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
"The government has represented to the court that it will comply with the law," Friedrich said, adding that she would "presume" the IRS will uphold its legal obligations, as CNN reports.
The lawsuit, filed in early March, alleges that DHS directed the IRS to turn over the addresses of roughly 700,000 immigrants it is seeking to deport as part of the Trump administration's broader efforts to crack down on unauthorized immigration.
Plaintiffs' attorney Nandan M. Joshi, of the Public Citizen Litigation Group, argued that any potential data transfer threatens the long-standing "firewall" between tax authorities and immigration enforcement, as Tampa Free Press reports.
While the complaint states that "the administration has incorrectly characterized all individuals not authorized to remain in the U.S. as criminals," the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) countered in court filings that the IRS has not received any such requests from President Donald Trump or the White House, nor has it released any tax information to DHS.
The Department of Homeland Security had previously tried to enlist IRS agents in its broad immigration crackdown, asking for agents to audit companies that might be hiring immigrants in the country without legal permission, according to a copy of a memo viewed by The New York Times.
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