The Valley Chronicle - Padilla, Cortez Masto, CHC Members Lead Amicus Brief Defending Taxpayer Privacy Against IRS-DHS Data Sharing Agreement

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) Chair Representative Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.-13), Representative Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.-38), and Representative Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.-34) led 115 Senate and House Democrats in filing a bicameral amicus brief in the case Center for Taxpayer Rights v. IRS, currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The brief opposes the illegal data sharing system between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“The IRS’ agreement to turn over massive amounts of sensitive taxpayer data to ICE is dangerous, un-American, and illegal,” said Senator Padilla. “This reckless, mistake-prone system has almost certainly sent DHS agents after hardworking immigrants and citizens alike who are following the law, paying taxes, and contributing to our economy. We will keep fighting to hold the Trump Administration accountable for this gross violation of the law and harmful erosion of public trust.”

In the brief, the Democratic lawmakers argue that IRS’ implementation of bulk data transfers to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for immigration enforcement violates the privacy protections of taxpayers enshrined by Congress in section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code.

“The data sharing here was illegal and threatens federal government revenues, adversely affecting all taxpayers. It would also compromise taxpayer privacy and raise the possibility of grave consequences for individuals misidentified by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”), chilling participation in the tax system, impacting our constituents, and destroying public trust,” wrote the amici curiae.

“The IRS’s decision to share taxpayer data with DHS is in direct contradiction with the law and does absolutely nothing to keep Americans safe. Instead, it has struck fear in hardworking immigrant communities and led to a lack of trust in government to protect taxpayer privacy. I urge the Court to swiftly hold this Administration accountable for its violations of the law,” said Senator Cortez Masto.

“Taxpayer privacy is the foundation of a functioning tax system. Congress wrote laws that make the tax system a lockbox against abuses, and no Administration has the legal authority to simply ignore them. We are making clear to the D.C. Circuit that Congress means what it wrote,” said Representative Espaillat.

“This case is pretty cut and dry: the IRS broke the law. By handing taxpayer data over to DHS, the Trump administration not only violated clear privacy protections and put taxpayers’ personal data at risk but also betrayed decades of trust and undermined confidence in our entire tax system,” said Representative Sánchez.

“I’ve been pushing back on Trump’s effort to turn the IRS into another arm of his mass deportation machine since it was first uncovered because families should be able to file their taxes without fearing their private information will be used against them,” said Representative Gomez. “This case is about whether the Administration can ignore the law and undermine trust in the tax system for millions of people who file and pay their taxes every year. The Court should reject this abuse of power and uphold the privacy protections Congress put in place.”

Taxpayers without Social Security Numbers paid $59 billion in federal income taxes in 2022 alone, and the Yale Budget Lab estimates the policy could cost more than $300 billion in lost tax revenue through 2035.

This brief is part of a sustained, coordinated effort to defend the taxpayer privacy protections Congress established nearly fifty years ago. The filing marks the fourth CHC-led amicus filed in court cases pushing back against IRS-DHS data sharing efforts during the second Trump Administration.

Padilla has led the charge against the IRS-ICE data sharing agreement. Last month, Padilla and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) demanded answers and accountability from the IRS after the agency admitted in a court filing that the flawed system it adopted to transfer people’s home addresses to ICE potentially led to thousands of records being shared improperly in violation of taxpayer privacy laws. Padilla also slammed the Trump Administration after a U.S. district judge ruled that IRS-ICE data sharing system resulted in almost 43,000 cases of the Trump Administration violating strict taxpayer privacy laws.

Padilla, Wyden, Cortez Masto, and additional Senate Democrats warned early last year that the data sharing agreement between the IRS and ICE would result in serious errors and violate taxpayer privacy. They demanded details about the status and potential misuse of the data sharing program as recently as January 30 of this year. Last spring, Padilla, Wyden, and Cortez Masto led a letter and statement condemning the IRS’ plan, raising the alarm on initial reports that the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Government Efficiency illegally requested sensitive taxpayer information from the IRS.