D.C. Court Blocks IRS Sharing Taxpayer Data With ICE

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled this week that the Trump administration violated federal law by sharing confidential taxpayer information with immigration authorities to support a mass deportation agenda. The court upheld an injunction blocking a 2025 data-sharing agreement between the Treasury and Homeland Security departments, finding that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) improperly transferred the addresses of 47,289 individuals to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Under the illegal program, ICE requested the last known addresses of 1.28 million people. The court found the IRS used a workaround that allowed ICE to obtain records even when they failed to provide required existing addresses, sometimes using placeholders like "00000". Judge Cornelia Pillard noted that the government failed to ensure officials were personally engaged in qualifying criminal investigations, observing that former ICE Director Todd Lyons was improperly listed as the point of contact for all 1.28 million requests. The court characterized the Justice Department's defense of the program as "weak sauce."

The program was established following pressure from the Department of Government Efficiency and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, leading to the resignation of Acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause in April 2025. While the Department of Homeland Security maintains it will continue using lawful tools to remove illegal aliens, the court warned that government personnel face civil and criminal consequences for willful disclosure of protected information. The ruling also grants standing to individuals deported via this data transfer to sue the administration.