The court filing says thousands of taxpayers’ data was wrongly shared with the Department of Homeland Security

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS mistakenly shared the taxpayer information of thousands of people with the Department of Homeland Security, as part of the agencies’ controversial agreement to share information on immigrants for the purpose of identifying and deporting people illegally in the United States, according to a new court filing.

This revelation stems from a data-sharing agreement signed last April by Treasury Secretary Scott Pisent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, which allows US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to submit the names and addresses of immigrants inside the United States illegally to the IRS for verification of tax records.

An announcement filed Wednesday by IRS Chief Risk and Oversight Officer Dottie Romo said the IRS was only able to verify approximately 47,000 of the 1.28 million names requested by ICE.

For less than 5% of these individuals, the IRS gave ICE additional address information, which may violate privacy rules created to protect taxpayer data.

Romo added that the Treasury Department notified DHS in January of the error and requested the department’s assistance in “taking immediate steps to address the matter consistent with federal law,” which includes “the appropriate disposition of any data provided to ICE by the IRS based on incomplete or insufficient address information.”

The IRS-DHS agreement sparked a lawsuit between advocacy groups and the federal government last year.

Public Citizen sued the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and their agencies on behalf of several immigrant rights groups shortly after the agreement was signed.

Recently, a federal court in Massachusetts ordered the IRS to stop sharing residential addresses with ICE. Last November, a federal court blocked the IRS from sharing information with the Department of Homeland Security, saying the IRS illegally released the tax data of some immigrants last summer.

News of the false revelation was initially reported by The Washington Post. An IRS spokesman did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

Supporters fear that the potentially illegal release of taxpayer records could be used to maliciously target Americans, violating their privacy and creating other repercussions.

“This breach of confidential information was part of the reason we filed the lawsuit in the first place,” said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen. “Sharing this private taxpayer data creates chaos, and as we saw last year, if federal agents use this private information to track individuals, it could put people’s lives at risk.”

“Improper sharing of taxpayer data is unsafe, illegal, and subject to serious criminal penalties,” said Tom Bowman, policy counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology.

“Once taxpayer data is opened to immigration enforcement, mistakes are inevitable and consequences fall on innocent people,” Bowman said. “The disclosure of thousands of confidential records unfortunately shows exactly why strict legal firewalls exist, which have – until now – been treated as an important guardrail.”

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