Federal immigration enforcement officials said they have not used taxpayer data obtained from the IRS to carry out deportations, according to a new batch of court filings that shed light on how the Trump administration is navigating the line between immigration enforcement and long-standing tax privacy rules.
The filings, submitted in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts in a lawsuit brought by the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern Massachusetts, described Immigration and Customs Enforcement cross-referencing taxpayer information with a list of roughly 1.2 million illegal aliens who have final removal orders.
ICE said the effort produced about 33,000 updated addresses earlier this year, Politico reported.
But the agency contends it did not act on the data, even after its technology office made it available to personnel supporting enforcement and removal operations.
In one sworn statement, an ICE Homeland Security Investigations official said the IRS data is currently "residing" on a government-issued computer belonging to a single "lead architect," who serves as the conduit for transferring data among stakeholders.
The filing said, "At this juncture, only the lead architect has access" to the IRS data.
The disclosures come amid an escalating legal fight over whether and how the federal government can share confidential taxpayer information — such as last-known addresses on tax returns — with immigration authorities.
Plaintiffs argue the tax code generally protects that data from disclosure and warn that broader sharing could chill tax compliance among immigrant communities.
That concern has also surfaced in parallel litigation in Washington, D.C.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in November issued an order restricting the IRS from continuing certain information-sharing arrangements while the court reviews the legality of the policy, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Major news outlets reported the judge found the IRS likely acted unlawfully by turning over tens of thousands of taxpayer addresses to ICE and questioned whether the plan was too sweeping under federal law governing tax secrecy.
Conservatives have argued that Americans expect the government to enforce final removal orders — and that illegal immigrants who have exhausted due process should not be effectively shielded by bureaucratic loopholes.
At the same time, many on the right also stress the importance of rule-of-law guardrails, including taxpayer privacy statutes designed to protect citizens from political misuse of IRS records.
ICE's new court filings appear designed to reassure the court that, whatever information was identified, it has not been operationalized into arrests or removals — at least so far.
Still, the case underscores the broader tension facing Washington: How to carry out an aggressive deportation agenda while avoiding a precedent that turns tax filings into a backdoor enforcement dragnet.
The outcome matters beyond immigration politics.
Judges and analysts have warned that undermining confidence in tax confidentiality can reduce voluntary compliance and ultimately harm federal revenues.
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