A federal judge on Monday denied a request to stop the Internal Revenue Service from providing immigrants’ tax information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for locating and deporting individuals unlawfully in the U.S.
In a victory for the Trump administration, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich rejected a preliminary injunction sought by nonprofit organizations. They contended that undocumented immigrants who fulfill tax obligations should have the same privacy rights as U.S. citizens and legal immigrants.
Friedrich, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, had previously refused to grant a temporary order in the case.
This ruling follows the resignation of former acting IRS commissioner Melanie Krause less than a month ago, who left amid controversy over the arrangement permitting ICE to send immigrants’ names and addresses to the IRS for verification with tax records.
The IRS has been in upheaval over Trump administration decisions to share taxpayer data. A previous acting commissioner announced his retirement earlier amid a furor over Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency gaining access to IRS taxpayer data.
The Treasury Department says the agreement with ICE will help carry out President Donald Trump’s agenda to secure U.S. borders and is part of his larger nationwide immigration crackdown, which has resulted in deportations, workplace raids and the use of an 18th century wartime law to deport Venezuelan migrants.
The acting ICE director has said working with Treasury and other departments is “strictly for the major criminal cases.”
Advocates, however, say the IRS-DHS information-sharing agreement violates privacy laws and diminishes the privacy of all Americans.
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