US: Homeland Security officials push IRS for 700,000 immigrants’ addresses

IRS officials have so far denied the department’s attempts to verify the addresses, the people said, because of the legal concerns. But the request is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to enlist the tax collector in its plans for mass deportations.

Many immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission file tax returns with the IRS, giving the agency information about where they live, their families, their employers and their earnings. The IRS gives immigrants without Social Security numbers a separate nine-digit code called an individual tax payer identification number to file their returns.
Taxpayer information is typically kept closely held at the IRS, with improper disclosure barred under federal law. IRS officials have told their Department of Homeland Security counterparts that they need to follow rules governing taxpayer privacy, the people familiar with the matter said.

Representatives for the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Washington Post reported earlier on the request.

The request is a sign of the lengths Trump administration officials are trying to go to deport millions of immigrants who are in the United States illegally. Administration officials are preparing to create a registry listing migrants and are using military sites to help deport them. The Trump administration has repeatedly sought access to taxpayer information at the IRS in ways that officials at the tax agency have worried could violate federal law. The agency recently signed an agreement allowing a member of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to view anonymized taxpayer data as part of a push to modernize the agency’s software. The Musk team is leading an effort to shrink federal programs and the government’s workforce. The Department of Homeland Security had previously tried to enlist IRS agents in its broad immigration crackdown, asking for agents to audit companies that might be hiring immigrants in the country without legal permission, according to a copy of a memo viewed by The New York Times. President Donald Trump has also suggested that IRS agents could be sent to the Mexico border.

The requests have added to the tumult at an agency that is already reeling. The IRS has been hit with more than 7,000 layoffs under the Trump administration so far, and its acting commissioner, Doug O’Donnell, stepped down Friday, the second resignation at the top in little more than a month.

Trump and Musk have both suggested that the IRS should be abolished.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.