Lilliana Rodriguez
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reached a Memorandum of Understanding where the IRS will share the tax information of immigrants in order for ICE to “take immediate steps to identify, exclude, or remove aliens illegally present in the United States”.
Undocumented immigrants had been encouraged to file their taxes under the guise that the IRS would keep their information confidential, and that paying their taxes would support their immigration proceedings. The agreement was signed on April 7th with an unclear date for the data-sharing to begin.
In the agreement, the IRS will release the tax data for immigrants ICE claims are under criminal investigation—including failing to leave the country after 90 days. The acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause, along with several senior officials, have resigned following the finalization of this agreement with concern over the legality of said data-sharing.
A Treasury Official told AP News that the basis for the agreement is founded in “longstanding authorities granted by Congress, which serve to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans while streamlining the ability to pursue criminals”.
This becomes another avenue for immigration officials to track and deport migrants, whether they’re undocumented, a visa holder, or permanent residents. Deportations have been used as a political tool to suppress anti-imperialist sentiment and spread terror among the immigrant population. This agreement shows that false promises of confidentiality and of “doing it the right way” lead the most exploited workers to be further hounded by US imperialism.
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