IRS Data-Sharing With ICE Faces Legal Challenge

The fight over ICE’s mass data request may redefine how far § 6103’s criminal-investigation exception stretches in an era of algorithmic enforcement.

Court filings show that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sought tax information from the IRS covering 1.28 million U.S. taxpayers, matching roughly 47,000 records.

The disclosures came as part of the administrative record in Ctr. for Taxpayer Rights v. Internal Revenue Serv., a District of Columbia suit filed by the Center for Taxpayer Rights, Communications Workers of America, and other groups seeking to block the agency’s cooperation with ICE.

Plaintiffs argue the data transfers breach taxpayer-privacy protections and exceed the narrow disclosure authority granted under the Tax Code.

The Law in Play

At issue is IRC § 6103, which generally prohibits IRS disclosure of return information except under enumerated exceptions, including law-enforcement use in criminal investigations.

ICE contends its bulk requests qualify under that exception because the data concern individuals under final removal orders.

The plaintiffs counter that § 6103 requires individualized, case-specific request…