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A federal judge on Monday declined to halt the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from sharing immigrants’ tax information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), clearing the way for continued collaboration aimed at identifying and deporting individuals living in the U.S. without legal status.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, denied a preliminary injunction sought by nonprofit groups who argued that undocumented immigrants who file taxes deserve the same privacy protections afforded to U.S. citizens and legal residents. Friedrich had previously refused to issue a temporary order blocking the data-sharing agreement.
The ruling marks a legal victory for the Trump administration and comes just weeks after former acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause stepped down over the controversial arrangement. The deal permits ICE to submit names and addresses of suspected undocumented immigrants to the IRS, which then cross-checks the data against tax filings.
The IRS has faced internal turmoil over the administration’s push to broaden access to taxpayer information. A previous acting commissioner resigned amid backlash tied to a separate controversy involving Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency gaining access to sensitive IRS data.
The Treasury Department defended the arrangement, saying it supports President Donald Trump’s broader immigration enforcement strategy. That strategy has included mass deportations, workplace raids, and even the invocation of an obscure 18th-century wartime statute to expedite the removal of Venezuelan migrants.
ICE leadership maintains that the inter-agency collaboration is intended strictly for “major criminal cases,” but civil liberties advocates disagree. Critics argue that the IRS-ICE information-sharing pact infringes on privacy laws and sets a dangerous precedent that could erode the confidentiality of all taxpayers, not just undocumented immigrants.
This is developing news and will be updated as more information is available.
Reporting by the Associated Press contributed to this article.
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