A federal appeals court has denied a request to stop the IRS from sharing taxpayer information with immigration enforcement. The ruling allows ICE to continue cross-checking names and addresses against tax records to help identify people in the country illegally.
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court in Washington D.C. has ruled against immigrant advocacy organizations seeking to halt the Internal Revenue Service’s practice of sharing taxpayer information with immigration authorities.
The three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit turned down the emergency request from Centro de Trabajadores Unidos and several other nonprofit organizations on Tuesday. These groups had filed a lawsuit challenging a data-sharing arrangement established last April between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Under this arrangement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials can provide names and addresses of individuals believed to be in the country without legal status to the IRS, which then checks these details against their tax database records.
Judge Harry T. Edwards explained the court’s decision to deny the emergency halt, writing that the advocacy groups “are unlikely to succeed on the merits of their claim” because the data being exchanged falls outside the protections of IRS privacy laws.
Centro de Trabajadores Unidos has not yet responded to requests for comment regarding the ruling.
Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated the court’s decision on social media, calling it a “crucial victory” for the current administration. “Deporting illegal aliens makes the American people safer,” Bondi wrote in her social media statement.
The current administration maintains that this data-sharing initiative supports President Donald Trump’s border security priorities and represents a key component of his comprehensive immigration enforcement strategy, which has included deportation operations and workplace enforcement actions.
The data-sharing arrangement sparked significant internal controversy, leading to the resignation of the IRS acting commissioner last year in protest of the agreement.
Recent court documents have disclosed that the IRS mistakenly shared taxpayer data for thousands of individuals with the Department of Homeland Security through this program.
According to a sworn statement from IRS Chief Risk and Control Officer Dottie Romo, the tax agency was able to confirm information for approximately 47,000 individuals out of 1.28 million names submitted by ICE. The IRS provided additional address details for fewer than 5% of those confirmed cases, which may have violated taxpayer privacy protections.