ICE Sought Records on 1.3 Million Taxpayers, Filing Shows (1)

Immigration and Customs Enforcement requested information from the IRS on 1.28 million US taxpayers, matching the records of 47,000 people, court records show.

The IRS filed redacted emails and records requests as a part of the administrative record produced in a lawsuit brought by taxpayer advocacy groups including the Center for Taxpayer Rights and unions including the Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO. The groups sought a preliminary injunction to halt IRS disclosure of taxpayer information to the Department of Government Efficiency.

The disclosures show IRS officials attempting to respond to a request the DOJ acknowledged was unprecedented, but also says falls within IRC Section 6103, the Tax Code provision intended to protect taxpayer information from unauthorized disclosure.

ICE requested the information pursuant to a carve-out in Section 6103 that allows information disclosures in the event an individual is under criminal investigation. This is one of several lawsuits challenging ICE’s requests for large data sets of taxpayer information at once.

The IRS responds to about 30,000 requests in a typical year. The requests have very specific rules, requiring the requesting agency provide the name, taxpayer number, and address of a person; the justification for seeking the record; and an agency head’s approval before the IRS responds.

ICE’s first request, for about 700,000 people who were under final orders of removal, came Feb. 18, according to an email from Guy Ficco, chief of the IRS’ criminal investigation division. A later email shows that information was requested by Caleb Vitello, who was acting director of ICE for several weeks.

An analysis sent back several days later by former IRS Deputy Commissioner Douglas W. O’Donnell, who has since retired, indicated the IRS “cannot provide information responsive to the request made,” citing Section 6103.

After a memorandum of understanding was signed in April, the agencies facilitated a secure large file transfer via Kiteworks. In June, ICE provided data for and requested the records of “the full alien population, which contains 7,615,279 records.” Acting IRS Chief Counsel Andrew De Mello determined there were several deficiencies and didn’t process the request.

After refinement, ICE officials came back with a set of 1,277,464 requests, sought by acting ICE Director Todd Lyons.

A further request on June 27 returned just 3.7% matches; 93.7% didn’t match and 2.6% didn’t met specifications of the MOU. The IRS rejected the request if the record wasn’t at least 90 days old, according go an August 7 email from Lou Capece, coordinating director of infrastructure for the IRS.

The IRS indicated that about 47,000 records matched data in that request, depending on the date and time of the run. The messages don’t indicate how many were actually sent to ICE.

“There is no need for a press release or broad disclosure of the fact that this information is being provided and the MOU does not discuss any publicizing of the disclosure,” said Kenneth Kies, assistant secretary of the treasury for tax policy, in the last email in the record, which is dated Aug. 7.

The plaintiffs allege the disclosures violate the Tax Reform Act, the Privacy Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act.

“The dangers posed by these disclosures are real, imminent threats to core privacy rights,” Maddy Gitomer, counsel for the plaintiffs said. “The administration’s ongoing rush to execute this dangerous policy will have disastrous consequences if not stopped urgently.”

The IRS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Democracy Forward Foundation represents the plaintiffs.

The Washington-Baltimore News Guild, which is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America, represents employees of Bloomberg Law.

The case is Ctr. for Taxpayer Rights v. Internal Revenue Serv., D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-00457, submission of administrative record 10/29/25.