IRS nearing agreement to use its data to help ICE locate undocumented migrants

The IRS is close to finalizing an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to help locate migrants suspected of being in the US illegally, a person familiar with the matter said, as President Donald Trump continues his hardline deportation push.

The IRS is close to finalizing an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to help locate migrants suspected of being in the US illegally, a person familiar with the matter said, as President Donald Trump continues his hardline deportation push. The agreement would require Immigration and Customs Enforcement to submit names and addresses of people it suspects of living in the country illegally to the IRS, which the tax agency would then cross-reference and confirm, the person said. Tax information has generally been closely held within the IRS, and laws prohibit improper disclosure of taxpayer information. The IRS has encouraged undocumented migrants to file taxes, a process that includes providing the agency with their addresses, employers and earnings. CNN reported earlier this year that DHS had circulated a draft memo to the IRS that represented a sweeping request for information about suspected undocumented immigrants, including the home addresses of several hundred thousand individuals who paid federal taxes based on their individual taxpayer identification numbers, according to a source with direct knowledge of the document. Privacy experts say that would be a violation of the strict disclosure laws that the IRS operates under which prohibit the release of tax information by an IRS employee. The draft the person described Sunday appears to be a narrower version of the earlier draft. Under the current iteration, the IRS would confirm migrants’ addresses rather than provide the information to ICE.