IRS Discloses Taxpayer Data to ICE in Privacy Breach

The Internal Revenue Service disclosed confidential taxpayer information for thousands of individuals to the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, violating federal privacy protections, according to a recent court filing. The error occurred under a data-sharing agreement implemented in April 2025 between the Treasury Department and the Department of Homeland Security, aimed at assisting immigration enforcement efforts.

The agreement allowed ICE to submit lists of names and addresses of people believed to be in the United States without legal authorization for verification against IRS tax records. ICE provided data on approximately 1.28 million individuals, including names, Social Security numbers, and partial addresses. The IRS confirmed matches for about 47,000 of those names but erred in providing additional address details for roughly 5 percent of them, or around 2,350 cases. These disclosures happened even when ICE's submitted information was incomplete or insufficient to accurately identify the individuals, breaching strict federal laws that safeguard taxpayer data from unauthorized release.

Dottie Romo, the IRS chief risk and control...