Justice reveals IRS request from CBP amid ICE data-sharing lawsuit

The Treasury Department found out this week that a Department of Homeland Security component recently requested data from the IRS — but the ask wasn’t from the subagency currently tied up in litigation over solicitations of that kind.

In a federal court filing Thursday, attorneys for the defendants in Center for Taxpayer Rights v. Internal Revenue Service said Treasury on Tuesday “learned of a request” to the IRS made by Customs and Border Protection. 

According to the Justice Department lawyers, CBP on or around Sept. 11 reached out to the IRS “for certain corporate return information pursuant to” the section of federal tax code on “ascertaining the correctness of audits under the Tariff Act of 1930.” Treasury notified the attorneys of this request Wednesday, per the filing.

The lawsuit in question was initially about DOGE’s access to IRS IT systems. The plaintiffs — the Center for Taxpayer Rights, Main Street Alliance, the National Federation of Federal Employees and the Communications Workers of America — sought to cut off that access, citing privacy concerns.

But an amended complaint filed in May took a broader look at the “sensitive taxpayer data DOGE seeks to share,” including moves made by DHS “to support unspecified criminal investigations in connection with immigration enforcement.” 

On Sept. 5, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the defense attorneys to notify the court within 24 hours of any additional requests DHS or Immigration and Customs Enforcement makes to the IRS, or new plans to share tax data with those agencies.

Since the September data request came from CBP and not ICE, the defense wrote in its filing that it does not think it “falls within the ambit of the Court’s order” but decided to share the information with the court anyway, “out of an abundance of caution.”

The defense also noted that CBP did not request any individual tax return information. The agency also has “no authority” to “redisclose” information to ICE that it obtained via the tariff-related section of the Internal Revenue Code, the attorneys said.

None of the plaintiffs responded to a FedScoop request for comment on the new court filing, nor did Democracy Forward, which represents the groups, by the time of publication. 

The IRS’s data-sharing agreement with ICE has sparked outrage from immigrant rights and privacy groups, as well as separate litigation. When news of the pact broke in March, the IRS’s then-acting commissioner resigned from the agency in protest. 

In May, a Trump-appointed judge refused to block the data-sharing deal, ruling against the plaintiffs in Centro de Trabajadores Unidos vs. Bessent. As the D.C. Circuit Court considered an appeal, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed an amicus brief in July arguing that the bulk disclosure of taxpayer information would lead to “record linkage errors,” likely resulting in “an increase in mistaken and dangerous ICE enforcement actions against taxpayers.”