WASHINGTON — Today, Representative Lou Correa (CA-46) joined an amicus brief to support a lawsuit against the Trump Administration sharing taxpayer information from the IRS with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“This amicus brief outlines and opposes the Administration’s overreach and asks that it keeps the tax information we file with the IRS private and secure, as required under existing federal law. It is Congress, not federal agencies, that sets privacy law. The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) massive data request violates Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC).
Specifically, through this brief we are asking our federal courts to safeguard taxpayer privacy protections against an unprecedented attempt by the Trump Administration to utilize taxpayer information to aid in the Administration's disturbing mass detention and deportation efforts.
Our hardworking immigrants followed the laws and paid taxes using IRS issued ITINs. They did so because they trusted federal laws and long-standing IRS practice to never use information provided for immigration enforcement. Upholding that practice protects the integrity of the entire U.S. tax system and ensures the continued payment of billions of tax dollars that these individuals contribute every year, despite being ineligible for many of the programs that their tax dollars subsidize.
DHS's mass data request would turn the IRS into a surveillance agency - exactly what Congress outlawed fifty years ago after the Watergate scandal, in which the Nixon Administration tried to misuse IRS tax information.
Together with other interested and concerned Members of Congress, this amicus brief asks the court to enforce the important privacy provisions of the IRC and respect decades of legislative history and IRS practice.
Remember, fifty years ago, Section 6103 was enacted by Congress to protect all taxpayers from federal government overreach and abuse. Violating this law sets us on a very dangerous course, irrespective of legal status.”
You can read the full amicus brief HERE.
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