IRS Data Sharing Deal With ICE Failed to Meet Set Safeguards

Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn’t meet safeguard standards before it signed an agreement to get more IRS information on immigrants, a watchdog found.

The IRS and the Department of Homeland Security in April 2025 agreed to share data of immigrants to help with criminal investigations as part of the Trump administration’s deportation efforts. The deal resulted in a slew of top IRS leaders leaving and lawsuits from taxpayer rights and immigration groups. Multiple federal judges blocked the implementation of the agreement, saying it violated federal laws.

The IRS typically reviews and issues a report on how an agency receiving federal tax information is complying with data safeguard requirements. There were still open issues at the time the data was transferred to ICE, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in a Monday report. Details on the findings were redacted in the TIGTA report.

Several months after the agreement, ICE submitted a corrective action plan but gave no implementation date, TIGTA said.

The IRS also had its own missteps.

The agency in February improperly disclosed thousands of immigrants’ personal information. Its processes were “unable to identify and match records accurately and consistently,” TIGTA said.

The IRS could verify only about 47,00 individuals of the 1.2 million that ICE requested. But for less than 5% of those individuals, the IRS gave ICE additional address information.

TIGTA’s Office of Audit has an ongoing review on the IRS’s safeguards with data sharing.