Court filing says IRS mistakenly shared taxpayer data with DHS

Court filing alleges IRS missteps in DHS data-sharing

The IRS erroneously shared taxpayer information with the Department of Homeland Security under a data-sharing agreement tied to immigration enforcement, according to a court filing released Feb. 11.

The disclosure, described in a declaration by IRS Chief Risk and Control Officer Dottie Romo, stemmed from an agreement signed last April by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the filing said. Under the pact, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would submit names and addresses of immigrants in the U.S. illegally to the IRS for cross-verification against tax records.

Romo’s declaration said the IRS was able to verify roughly 47,000 of the 1.28 million names that ICE requested. The filing further stated that for less than 5% of the individuals, the IRS provided ICE additional address information. Advocates argued that providing such information could violate privacy protections created to safeguard taxpayer data.

The declaration said Treasury notified DHS in January after the error and asked DHS to assist with remediation “consistent with federal law,” including “appropriate disposal of any data provided to ICE by IRS based on incomplete or insufficient address information.”

The agreement has been the focus of litigation since it was signed last year. Public Citizen filed a lawsuit against Bessent, Noem and their respective agencies on behalf of several immigrant rights groups shortly after the pact was announced, according to the court filing described by the Associated Press.

In the months after the dispute began, courts issued multiple rulings affecting how the IRS shares information. A Massachusetts federal court ordered the IRS to stop sharing residential addresses with ICE, and another federal court blocked the IRS from sharing information with DHS, concluding that the IRS illegally disseminated tax data of some migrants last summer.

Advocates said the latest allegations show why legal safeguards for tax records matter. Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, said the breach was part of the reason the lawsuit was filed and warned that sharing private taxpayer data can create chaos and potentially endanger lives if federal agents use the information to track down individuals.

Tom Bowman, policy counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology, said the improper sharing of taxpayer data is unsafe, unlawful, and subject to serious criminal penalties. He added that mistakes are inevitable once taxpayer data is opened to immigration enforcement and said the disclosure of thousands of confidential records underscores the need for strict legal firewalls.

A spokesperson for the IRS did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment, and the news of the alleged erroneous disclosure was initially reported by The Washington Post.