A Washington, D.C., federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the IRS from sharing taxpayer information with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, finding the practice “unlawful.”
The court “concludes that the Plaintiffs have shown a substantial likelihood that the IRS’s adoption of the Address-Sharing Policy and the IRS’s subsequent sharing of taxpayer information with ICE were unlawful under the Administrative Procedure Act,” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote in a 94-page ruling.
“Furthermore, Plaintiffs have shown that the IRS’s disclosure of confidential taxpayer address information to ICE was contrary to law because it violated several provisions of Internal Revenue Code,” the judge wrote.
The order indicated that in early August, the IRS disclosed information about nearly 47,000 taxpayers.
The Treasury Department and the IRS did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday night.
The order paused the policy that established the sharing of taxpayer data pending further review, and preliminarily enjoined the IRS, the Treasury Department and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent from sharing any tax return information with the Department of Homeland Security, though the judge listed some exceptions with judicial approval.
Six people have held the lead role at the agency so far this year, with Bessent stepping up as the latest acting commissioner after President Donald Trump removed Billy Long in August.
Other agencies in the administration have agreed to share information to aid immigration enforcement. The Department of Health and Human Services said in a memo Friday that it intends to share data with ICE to aid the administration’s efforts to root out undocumented immigrants.
