Media Contacts:
Asian Law Caucus, media@asianlawcaucus.org
Greater Boston Legal Services, larevalo@gbls.org, 617-603-1569
Immigrant Advocates Uncover Alarming IRS-ICE Implementation Plan to Share Taxpayer Data
IRS Agreement to Share Taxpayer Addresses with Immigration Enforcement Points to Potential Privacy Violations
BOSTON - In the past month, Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern Massachusetts (CEDC) obtained the Implementation Agreement between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) specifying how the IRS and ICE will share immigrant taxpayer information. The agreement fills in important details regarding which immigration enforcement and taxpayer databases will be used, information that the agencies left unresolved in a previously-released Memorandum of Understanding. Amid months of public outcry and litigation about IRS and ICE’s plans to share information, the agency has refused, until now, to make this implementation agreement public. CEDC procured this agreement through a lawsuit filed by Asian Law Caucus (ALC) and Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS) in July.
For decades, working immigrants have provided personal information in good faith to the IRS, trusting the agency’s promises that it would not share their tax filings with immigration enforcement agencies. Under the Trump administration, the IRS has already revealed the residential addresses of more than 40,000 immigrants. This information is gleaned from common documents such as Forms 1040, W2, and 1099 that are now flowing directly into ICE’s immigrant database. The agency is seeking sensitive information of at least a million more to flow directly into its immigrant database.
In an unprecedented policy shift, federal agencies are widely expected to use sensitive information to deport immigrant community members and separate families. The Trump administration has also directed federal agencies to commit personnel, including 250 IRS agents towards its mass deportation agenda. Strict legal requirements prohibit the use of taxpayer information for civil immigration enforcement, and immigrant and taxpayer advocates are closely watching for potential privacy violations as the IRS hands over massive volumes of sensitive personal data.
“The CEDC has worked tirelessly for decades to establish trust with the hardworking immigrant taxpayers we serve and to educate them about their civic duty to file taxes and report income. These taxpayers are not abstract – they are our neighbors, our caregivers and fellow workers,”said Corinn Williams, executive director of Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern Massachusetts.“We are deeply troubled that litigation was necessary to require the IRS to disclose the implementation agreement to share sensitive taxpayer information with ICE. This shift in policy has left our members exposed, afraid and uncertain about the future of their families.”
“Regardless of immigration status, we should all be able to go to work, put food on the table, and hold our families without fear,” said Josh Rosenthal, workers’ rights program director at Asian Law Caucus. “All workers pay taxes with the explicit expectation that their personal information will not be shared en masse. Despite President Trump’s disregard for our freedoms, we’ll be fighting to ensure that immigration agents adhere to privacy laws.”
“This lawsuit was brought on behalf of immigrant taxpayers but the broader issue at stake is everyone’s right to privacy,” said Luz Arévalo, senior attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services. “Make no mistake: this breach of trust may hurt immigrant families first, but in eroding the integrity of the tax system, it will end up hurting everyone.“