Judge refuses to block IRS from sharing tax data to identify and deport people illegally in U.S.

A federal judge on Monday refused to block the Internal Revenue System from sharing immigrants tax statistics with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the purpose of identifying and deporting people illegally in the U S In a win for the Trump administration U S District Judge Dabney Friedrich denied a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by nonprofit groups They argued that undocumented immigrants who pay taxes are entitled to the same privacy protections as U S citizens and immigrants who are legally in the country Friedrich who was appointed by President Donald Trump had previously refused to grant a temporary order in the circumstance The decision comes less than a month after former acting IRS commissioner Melanie Krause resigned over the deal allowing ICE to submit names and addresses of immigrants inside the U S illegally to the IRS for cross-verification against tax records The plaintiffs are disappointed in the Court s denial of our preliminary injunction but the affair is far from over We are considering our options Alan Butler Morrison the attorney representing the nonprofit groups wrote in an email He noted that the judge s ruling made it clear that the Department of Homeland Guard and the IRS can t venture beyond the strict limitations spelled out in the circumstance So far DHS has not made formal requests for taxpayer records and plaintiffs will be keeping a close watch to be sure that the defendants carry out their promises to follow the law and not use the exception for unlawful purposes Morrison explained The IRS has been in upheaval over Trump administration decisions to share taxpayer information A previous acting commissioner reported his retirement earlier amid a furor over Elon Musk s Department of Governing body Efficiency gaining access to IRS taxpayer evidence The Treasury Department says the agreement with ICE will help carry out President Donald Trump s agenda to secure U S borders and is part of his larger nationwide immigration crackdown which has resulted in deportations workplace raids and the use of an th century wartime law to deport Venezuelan displaced persons The acting ICE director has disclosed working with Treasury and other departments is strictly for the major criminal cases Advocates however say the IRS-DHS information-sharing agreement violates privacy laws and diminishes the privacy of all Americans In her ruling Friedrich disclosed the agreement doesn t violate the Internal Revenue Code so the IRS hasn t substantially changed the way it handles taxpayer information Instead the Trump administration has decided to use already existing statutorily authorized tools to help with criminal investigations Friedrich wrote Federal law allows the IRS to release several taxpayer information to other agencies if the information may assist in criminal enforcement proceedings and the requesting agency meets certain criteria the judge announced Still that doesn t mean that all the information the IRS holds can be turned over Friedrich noted First the analyzing agency has to already have the name and address of the person whose information is being sought Then the agency has to provide that information to the IRS along with the time span for which the information relates the law that allows the information to be distributed and the reason why any IRS-disclosed information would be relevant to the inquiry In other words the IRS can disclose information it obtains itself such as through audits but not information it obtains exclusively from the taxpayer such as a tax return filed by the taxpayer Friedrich wrote She noted the law contains a notable exception a taxpayer s identity including the individual s name address or taxpayer identifying number isn t considered part of the protected tax return information