A federal judge has given President Donald Trump the Green light to use IRS data to track down illegal migrants
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich denied a motion by immigrant rights groups to block an agreement between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security giving the go ahead for the IRS to give DHS the data of illegal migrants.
This ruling allows the Trump administration to use IRS taxpayer data to help ICE locate illegal migrants for deportation, marking a huge victory for Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda.
The decision comes less than a month after former acting IRS commissioner Melanie Krause resigned over the deal that allows ICE to submit names and addresses of illegal migrants to the IRS for cross-verification against tax records.
In her ruling, Friedrich said the agreement doesn’t violate the Internal Revenue Code, so the IRS hasn’t substantially changed the way it handles taxpayer information.
Instead, the Trump administration has decided to use already existing “statutorily authorized tools” to help with criminal investigations.
Federal law allows the IRS to release some taxpayer information to other agencies if the information may assist in criminal enforcement proceedings, and the requesting agency meets certain criteria, the judge said.
