A Trump-appointed federal judge denied immigrant rights advocacy groups’ motion to temporarily enjoin the IRS from sharing tax records with other agencies for immigration enforcement purposes, a matter Democrats are demanding answers on.
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Dabney L. Friedrich — appointed by President Trump during his first term — issued an order March 20telling two Chicago-based nonprofit organizations they “have not established a likelihood of success on the merits” in their lawsuit against the Trump administration.
Petitioner groups Centro de Trabajadores Unidos and Immigrant Solidarity Dupage specifically named Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause.
The organizations sought declaratory and injunctive relief in claiming the Treasury Department and IRS would violate Code Sec. 6103 taxpayer data privacy laws by disclosing protected tax information to officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), or elsewhere.
According to the March 7 complaint, the administration’s plans for cross-agency data sharing would unlawfully include sensitive tax records. “More than thirteen million individuals are potentially subject to the President’s mass deportation plans,” the organizations claimed. “To carry out the deportation policies articulated by President Trump, DHS and [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] must first identify and locate individuals who are subject to removal,” which is where the IRS comes in, they said.
Filed March 14, the groups requested emergency relief in a motion for a temporary restraining order, arguing that they would “suffer imminent and irreparable injury should such unlawful disclosure access be permitted.”
But Judge Friedrich was unpersuaded by the end of a hearing Wednesday, as stated in the denial order issued the following morning. “The plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate standing,” Friedrich wrote. “The plaintiffs allege that the IRS may unlawfully share their members’ confidential tax records with DHS or other government officials, in violation” of Section 6103.
“A single news report” as supporting evidence about “future cooperation between the IRS and DHS does not establish that the plaintiffs’ members are facing imminent injury,” said Friedrich, who pointed to the sworn declaration of the IRS chief privacy order.
According to the official, “no tax return information discussed in the complaint has been disclosed to DHS.” Friedrich also seemed convinced by the official’s statement that “neither President Trump nor the White House have made any requests for tax return information for immigration purposes.”
Friedrich noted in her order that statutory exemptions to Section 6103 exist allowing for authorized tax information access and disclosure, such as “for use in criminal investigations and proceedings.”
Democrats ‘demand more information.’
Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and other Democrat senators sent a March 14 letter to Krause, acting IRS Chief Counsel Andrew De Mollo, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. The senators raised their concerns about the involvement of DHS and DOGE in IRS systems and records.
“We are particularly concerned about the abrupt replacement of William Paul as Acting IRS Chief Counsel,” they wrote. “This raises serious concerns that IRS leadership is removing career civil servants who push back against illegal orders to violate privacy laws.”
The Democrats cited reports that DHS requested identifying and contact information for 700,000 individuals “in an apparent attempt to weaponize the tax system against those suspected of being undocumented immigrants.”
Obliging with these requests, the letter continued, would be criminal and run afoul of “the IRS’s core mission of tax collection” by discouraging voluntary tax compliance.
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