The Internal Revenue Service is quietly building a computer program that would let Immigration and Customs Enforcement pull taxpayer information on demand, giving deportation officers real‑time addresses and phone numbers for people with final removal orders, according to an internal blueprint reviewed by ProPublica.
What Happened: As per the report, the yet‑unnamed system would automate what once required individualized, court‑backed requests, moving from dozens of files to potentially millions.
Acting IRS general counsel Andrew De Mello refused an ICE bid for 7.3 million addresses under Section 6103 privacy rules, then was forced out on June 27, internal emails show.
Under the design, ICE uploads a spreadsheet of names and case numbers. The IRS program matches each entry to tax filings, extracts the latest contact data and spits back a spreadsheet in minutes, with no human legal review. Agents say stale leads handicap raids, but managers want the feed to be live by the end of July to meet a White House goal of 3,000 deportations a day.
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Why It Matters: Critics which including the Public Citizen Litigation Group, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and former IRS lawyers among them, argue the bulk feed turns the tax system into an immigration dragnet and courts dangerous mismatches. Since the search starts with a name, an innocent taxpayer could face an early‑morning knock, digital‑rights groups warn.
With Palantir landing fresh $30 million ICE contracts to knit data streams together, watchdogs say the firewall between tax administration and law enforcement is crumbling fast.
Unauthorized disclosure of return information is a felony, but opponents argue the blueprint shifts that risk to software code rushed under political pressure. Meanwhile, the White House insists the plan is legal and vital to fulfill President Trump's deportation pledge before aggressive election‑year enforcement ramps up.
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