Attorney General Bonta Supports Lawsuit Challenging IRS Sharing of Taxpayer Data with ICE

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta, as part of a multistate coalition, filed an amicus brief yesterday opposing the sharing of personal sensitive taxpayer information by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Last year, the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern Massachusetts and other organizations sued the Trump Administration for violating privacy protections to share taxpayers’ personal addresses and taxpayer data between IRS and the Department of Homeland Security. In the amicus brief, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition argue that the misuse of taxpayer data violates taxpayers’ trust and, as a result, threatens to undermine the state and federal tax collection systems that the states rely on.
 
“The Trump Administration is continuing to weaponize the personal, sensitive data of Californians for immigration enforcement,” said Attorney General Bonta. “We’ve sued to block the misuse of Medicaid, SNAP, and TANF data to feed this unprecedented mass surveillance effort, and we’ll continue to stand up for our residents’ privacy rights in the face of these relentless attacks.”
 
The Trump Administration’s mass deportation campaign has inflicted incalculable human and economic harms on California. This campaign has played out most visibly in images of masked agents swarming city streets, raiding high schools, and arresting children. But it has also involved the Administration’s quiet accumulation of massive data troves. Attorney General Bonta and the coalition have fought to prevent the misuse of Americans’ personal sensitive data, suing to block President Trump’s mass surveillance efforts using Medicaid data, SNAP data, and most recently TANF data, and defending against attempts to obtain access to many of their states’ voter rolls.
 
This effort has also extended to the illegal sharing of sensitive taxpayer information with ICE. Both federal and state governments rely on self-reporting and voluntary compliance with tax laws. Under the U.S. tax system, state and federal governments could not function without residents voluntarily providing highly sensitive private information to tax authorities. To gain trust and ensure compliance, federal and state governments have enshrined in law guarantees that taxpayers’ data will not be misused. The Trump Administration has violated those laws and betrayed that trust.

In the amicus brief, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition urge the U.S. Court of Appeals for First Circuit to uphold a lower court blocking the sharing of IRS data with ICE and ICE from using the data it has already obtained. The coalition argues that the sharing of taxpayer data with ICE:

• Irreparably harms public trust in taxation institutions that rely on voluntary compliance and advertise confidentiality.
• Will cause those already fearful of immigration enforcement to avoid filing federal tax returns, or participating in state tax systems, harming state tax revenues.
• Forces workers into an unregulated economy and workforce where they do not receive employee protections or legal benefits.
• Undermines already established state tax codes that seek to incentivize and provide economic relief through the form of tax deductions and credits.
• Undermines state financial aid systems for students seeking higher education that often rely on their parents filing tax returns.

Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of Minnesota, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawai'i, Illinois, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Virginia in filing the amicus brief.