The Trump administration reportedly fired Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Chief Billy Long for refusing to release tax information on illegal migrants, The Washington Post reported.
A deal was worked out in April between the Treasury Department — parent agency of the IRS — and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), two people familiar with the situation told The Washington Post. The IRS would send taxpayer data to verify the addresses of about 40,000 people DHS thinks are in the United States illegally. (RELATED: Department Of Homeland Security Confirms Abrego García Stopped On Suspicion Of Human Trafficking)
DHS officials later suggested that they would eventually need tax information of about 7 million people thought to be in the U.S. illegally, The Washington Post reported. There are reportedly about 11 million illegal migrants in the U.S.
Privacy lawyers at the IRS objected to the data sharing, arguing that this information is confidential.
IRS officials responded to DHS Friday and said that they could provide less than 3 percent of the 40,000 listed names provided by immigration enforcement officials. These people had individual taxpayer identification numbers provided by DHS, which migrants often use in place of Social Security numbers on tax filings.
DHS said in a statement that the agreement with the IRS “outlines a process to ensure that sensitive taxpayer information is protected, while allowing law enforcement to effectively pursue criminal violations,” The Washington Post reported. “After four years of Joe Biden flooding the nation with illegal aliens, these processes streamline pursuit of violent criminals, scrub these individuals from voter rolls, identify what public benefits these aliens are using at taxpayer expense, all while protecting American citizens’ safety and data,” the statement said. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement, “The Trump administration is working in lockstep to eliminate information silos and to prevent illegal aliens from taking advantage of benefits meant for hardworking American taxpayers.” “Any absurd assertion other than everyone being aligned on the mission is simply false and totally fake news,” she added after The Washington Post story was published. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will serve as the interim IRS commissioner.
