IRS has agreement with Homeland Security to share tax info on immigrants in U.S. illegally
The Internal Revenue Service has reached an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to share the data of immigrants in the country illegally to assist with immigration enforcement, according to a new court filing.
The arrangement, formalized Monday in a memorandum of understanding, allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement to request taxpayer information from the IRS for individuals under criminal investigation or who have deportation orders, including names and addresses.
'DHS can legally request return information relating to individuals under criminal investigation, and the IRS must provide it,' Andrew J. Weisberg, a tax division attorney with the Department of Justice, wrote Monday in opposition to a lawsuit by advocacy organizations seeking to block the sharing of tax information with immigration authorities.
The memorandum of understanding, signed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and dated April 7, was included in the filing as an attachment.
READ MORE: Supreme Court ruling on Venezuelans in El Salvador: What justices said and what it means
The data-sharing exercise is aimed at assisting ICE agents find undocumented migrants faster and helping the Trump administration achieve its goal of administering the largest deportation program in U.S. history.
Critics, including immigrant advocacy groups and privacy proponents, argue that the agreement violates longstanding taxpayer confidentiality protections and could deter undocumented immigrants from fulfilling their tax obligations.
Immigrant-rights groups had filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service, seeking to block the potential release of taxpayer data to assist with immigration enforcement.
The plaintiffs, including the Illinois-based Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, argue that sharing this data would violate strict confidentiality provisions in the IRS code, which limit how taxpayer information can be disclosed. They also warn that the move would betray the trust of millions of immigrants who file taxes using Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, despite lacking legal immigration status, and who contribute billions in federal and state revenue each year.
RELATED CONTENT: Miami-Dade mayor asks for tour of Krome detention center as overcrowding strains facility
The U.S. government has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the immigrant groups cannot show concrete imminent harm to their organizations or members. It maintains that the memorandum between the IRS and DHS fully complies with existing law, permitting the sharing of certain tax information for criminal investigations under strict safeguards.
'Federal law clearly protects taxpayer privacy. This agreement is illegal,' declared Public Citizen, one of the groups involved in the lawsuit against the government. 'This is an assault on every single taxpayer's rights and will destroy lives.'
Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat from Nevada, called the new agreement 'shameful' in that it breaks a promise that information immigrants provided to the IRS to pay their taxes would not be used against them.
'The U.S. Senate must hold immediate hearings with Treasury and DHS leadership to get direct answers and hold them accountable,' Rosen said in a statement.
The government asserts that no information has been shared under the memorandum to date, and any future disclosures would be lawful and protected by stringent confidentiality requirements.
The court is set to consider plaintiffs move for a preliminary injunction and the government's motion to dismiss the case. If dismissed, it would mark a significant setback for immigrant rights groups, who are in the midst of a legal maelstrom with the Trump administration.
The outcome could also set an important precedent for how federal tax data is protected — and how far the government can go in using it to enforce immigration policy.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Amid gas crunch, Alaska could revoke leases from a company whose drilling has stalled
Natural gas production from offshore platforms in Cook Inlet, outside of Anchorage, has declined over the past several decades. The area's dominant producer, Hilcorp, has warned electric and heating utilities that they should not expect their supply contracts to be renewed when existing ones expire. (Nathaniel Herz/Northern Journal) Gov. Mike Dunleavy's administration is threatening to strip a company of oil and gas leases in Cook Inlet outside Anchorage, saying it's sitting on deposits that could delay an impending shortage of gas needed for heating and power generation in urban Alaska. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources recently placed in 'default' the Cosmopolitan Unit, a block leased by Texas-based BlueCrest Energy, saying it hasn't met commitments to drill. The company has held leases at Cosmopolitan for more than a decade. It conducted initial drilling several years ago but has not drilled any new wells since 2019, according to state records. Company executives say that BlueCrest experienced a cash crunch when, amid a budget crisis beginning in 2014, the state of Alaska chose not to pay tax credits to oil firms that had spent money on drilling. BlueCrest has also had to ask Alaska's economic development agency to approve delays in paying back a $30 million state loan. The state's new notice to BlueCrest, signed in May by Commissioner John Boyle, gives the company until Aug. 21 to show proof that it's secured investment to drill a $55 million new oil well, as well as to advance development of a new offshore platform that would target natural gas. That platform could cost $350 million or more, according to BlueCrest officials. 'We want to see aggressive, defined momentum towards putting our resources into active production,' Boyle said in an interview Thursday. 'We need to see some drilling. We need to see some action.' BlueCrest is negotiating with multiple companies about potential investment, Benjy Johnson, its chief executive, said in a phone interview. 'We're hopeful that we'll get it done,' he said. 'I think we will.' Johnson said he understands the state's perspective, but added that defaulting BlueCrest's leases is 'not the solution to the problem.' 'The solution to the problem is helping us get funding to drill these wells, and to get the gas development going,' he said. BlueCrest is one of the smaller companies active in the Cook Inlet basin, where the vast majority of the gas is produced by a large independent oil business, Hilcorp. Hilcorp has warned urban Alaska's heating and electric utilities that they shouldn't expect Hilcorp to renew their gas supply contracts when they expire in the coming years. In response, those utilities are advancing plans to import liquefied natural gas — but they also say that new local gas production could delay the need for imports. The supply crunch is serious enough that utilities and regulators have recently been discussing contingency plans for rolling blackouts. BlueCrest says its leases contain large 'proved reserves' of gas — an industry term meaning that a deposit's flow has been tested and that an engineering firm has validated it can be produced with 90% probability or higher. But building an offshore platform to access the gas would cost some $350 million. One of the other small companies operating in Cook Inlet, HEX, has moved ahead with gas drilling in each of the past two years — with help from a decision by Dunleavy's administration to reduce the royalty payments due from HEX to the state. Boyle, the natural resources commissioner, described the royalty reduction as a 'carrot.' 'But there's also the potential for sticks, if we don't see active movement on developing the rest of (HEX's) leased acreage,' Boyle said. 'And the same for BlueCrest and anyone else that we don't feel is fulfilling their obligations.' The state has a range of options if BlueCrest doesn't advance its drilling program, Boyle said. In his notice to the company, he wrote that his agency could shrink BlueCrest's Cosmopolitan Unit, or 'terminate' it. If the state takes back some of BlueCrest's leased acreage, Boyle said, there are 'definitely companies and entities that are willing to put money there to bring that gas to market.' BlueCrest could also decide to sell its leases to another company, or find a business partner that could help advance development, according to Boyle. BlueCrest and Hilcorp previously discussed a partnership to develop the Cosmopolitan Unit's gas, Northern Journal reported in 2023. But the discussions broke down because the two companies couldn't agree on how to divide potential costs and profits. Nathaniel Herz welcomes tips at natherz@ or (907) 793-0312. This article was originally published in Northern Journal, a newsletter from Herz. Subscribe at this link.
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
JCPenney to close Haslet location and lay off 300 Texas employees, WARN notice says
Five years after filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy and amid over 200 store closures, JCPenney will soon shutter a logistics center and lay off nearly 300 Texas employees. The retail giant released the news in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) letter submitted to the Texas Workforce Commission on June 3. The layoffs will affect 296 employees in the North Texas town of Haslet. People are also reading: Houston-based Chevron to lay off 200 Texas employees mid-July, WARN notice says The layoffs will occur in two increments, as stated in the WARN letter. Some employees will lose their jobs over the first half of August, while the rest will be laid off in the first half of November. The Haslet warehouse will close around Nov. 1. "JCPenney is always seeking ways to adapt and enhance our operations with the goal of providing a better experience for our customers," JCPenney said in a statement to the Dallas Morning News. "After a thorough review of our organization, we've made the difficult decision to close our JCPenney Alliance Regional Logistics Center." At the beginning of the year, JCPenney revealed it had partnered with Forever 21 to create a new entity called Catalyst Brands. Brooks Brothers, Aéropostale, Lucky Brand, Nautica and Eddie Bauer were also included in the merger. In January, Catalyst Brands announced the opening of 1,800 store locations and the hiring of 60,000 employees. However, a JCPenney spokesperson had told USA TODAY that the store closures were not related to the merger. In April, a Catalyst Brands spokesperson told USA TODAY that the company was "optimizing" its structure and cutting around 9% of its corporate roles. The closures may be due to "expiring lease agreements, market changes or other factors," a JCPenney spokesperson added. Two months before Catalyst Brands made corporate cuts, JCPenney laid off around 5% of its own corporate staff. — CHRON and USA TODAY contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: JCPenney closure to lay off 300 North Texas employees: WARN notice
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Graham: Fiscal Q4 Earnings Snapshot
BATAVIA, N.Y. (AP) — BATAVIA, N.Y. (AP) — Graham Corp. (GHM) on Monday reported earnings of $4.4 million in its fiscal fourth quarter. On a per-share basis, the Batavia, New York-based company said it had profit of 40 cents. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to 43 cents per share. The maker of vacuum and heat-transfer equipment posted revenue of $59.3 million in the period. Graham expects full-year revenue in the range of $225 million to $235 million. _____ This story was generated by Automated Insights ( using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on GHM at
