The IRS is hiding the home addresses of 700,000 suspected illegal immigrants, according to a Washington Post report.
The IRS rejected a request from immigration enforcement officials who sought home addresses as part of Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, instead choosing to hide that information despite the administration’s efforts to access it.
The report noted that the Internal Revenue Service had promised “undocumented immigrants” over the years that it would protect their information and it would be safe for them to file income tax documents “without fear of being deported.”
The IRS claimed that federal law prohibits sharing personal information, even with other government agencies, “There is no authorization under this provision to share tax data with ICE.”
The report said an estimated one-half of the 11 million illegal aliens in the country file income tax returns, filing with individual taxpayer numbers, or ITINs, as they are ineligible for Social Security numbers. According to the report, this group contributes billions in federal taxes.
As noted in the report, the Washington Post obtained a memo showing that DHS officials asked the IRS to link names to last known addresses, phone numbers, or emails. This request followed an earlier DHS effort to provide a list of names to the IRS in exchange for home addresses.
The publication said five anonymous people familiar with the scenario made those claims.
Then this week a memo asked the IRS “to deploy dozens of highly skilled IRS auditors and criminal investigators to launch probes of businesses suspected of hiring immigrants not authorized to work in the United States,” the report said.
It said, “IRS investigations should be conducted, and assistance should be provided without regard for any threshold, floor, or internal policy for opening an investigation. Further, IRS should provide leads on businesses that are circumventing tax laws or violating worksite-related statutes, many of which are from prior leads or complaints that IRS did not investigate due to not meeting internal IRS policy for opening an investigation.”
While the IRS rejected the plan, the report says the agency is working to find a way to assist immigration officials without violating privacy laws.
Sources told the publication that the plan is causing alarm within the IRS, as sharing taxpayer information with third parties is both a civil and criminal offense.
Share your thoughts by scrolling down to leave a comment.
