Judge Rules IRS Broke The Law Approximately 42,695' Times By Giving ICE Data

"The IRS violated the [Internal Revenue Code] approximately 42,695 times by disclosing last known taxpayer addresses to ICE without confirming that ICE's request set forth the address of the taxpayer with respect to whom the requested return information relate[d]. Federal law requires the requesting agency to have specifically identified the individual in question by providing the IRS with the name and address of the person whose information it seeks to obtain."

"Kollar-Kotelly took it a step further, decrying the IRS's verification process by claiming ICE could have submitted requests with addresses like Don't Care 12345 or 00000 without being denied the information the agency was seeking. The IRS failed to verify that this information had been provided in the majority of the 47,300 DHS requests."

"Information sharing across agencies is essential to identify who is in our country, including violent criminals, determine what public safety and terror threats may exist so we can neutralize them, scrub these individuals from voter rolls, and identify what public benefits these aliens are using at taxpayer expense."

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly found that the IRS systematically broke the law by sharing confidential taxpayer addresses with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The IRS failed to verify that ICE's requests complied with federal law requiring the requesting agency to specifically identify individuals and provide their names and addresses. Out of 47,300 DHS requests, the IRS did not properly verify the required information in the majority of cases. The judge criticized the IRS's verification process as inadequate, noting that ICE could have submitted requests with placeholder addresses without being denied. The ruling was based on declarations from the IRS's chief risk and control officer regarding improper disclosures affecting thousands of individuals from 1.28 million people that ICE had requested information about.

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