Nationwide — A federal judge ruled that the IRS broke the law by giving Immigration and Customs Enforcement confidential taxpayer information more than 40,000 times. The disclosures violated strict privacy rules meant to protect Americans’ addresses.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly found the agency improperly handed over data as part of a program aimed at identifying and deporting immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. In many cases, the IRS provided extra address details, which went beyond what federal law allows.
The ruling relied on a declaration from IRS official Dottie Romo, who reported that the agency gave ICE information on 47,000 people out of 1.28 million requests. Most of these cases included additional address details. Kollar-Kotelly described Romo’s statement as a “significant development” in the lawsuit.
According to the Associated Press, the court said the IRS violated Section 6103 of the tax code, one of the strictest confidentiality laws in the country.
“The IRS not only failed to ensure that ICE’s request for confidential taxpayer address information met the statutory requirements, but this failure led the IRS to disclose confidential taxpayer addresses to ICE in situations where ICE’s request for that information was patently deficient,” the judge wrote.
The government has appealed the decision, but Romo’s declaration supports the ruling. Nina Olson, founder of the Center for Taxpayer Rights, said it shows the IRS “has an unlawful policy that violates the Internal Revenue Code’s protections.”
The disclosures stem from a 2025 data-sharing agreement between the Treasury Department and Homeland Security. The deal allows ICE to cross-check immigrant addresses against IRS records. The agreement prompted the resignation of the acting IRS commissioner and has faced multiple legal challenges.
Earlier this week, a three-judge appeals panel denied a preliminary injunction to stop the program, saying the shared information may not fall under IRS privacy protections. However, two other court orders remain in place, blocking large-scale transfers of taxpayer information and preventing ICE from using IRS data.