A watchdog report flags security risks in the IRS-ICE taxpayer data-sharing deal

Source: AP

By FATIMA HUSSEIN
Updated 10:53 AM CDT, June 8, 2026

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new Treasury inspector general report raises concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s ability to safeguard taxpayer information, after ICE and the IRS agreed in 2025 to share taxpayer data for the purpose of immigration investigations.

The recently released report provides the first official accounting of the scale of the IRS-ICE information transfer and documents security concerns surrounding an arrangement that has been the subject of multiple lawsuits and significant controversy inside both agencies.

Also known as TIGTA, Treasury’s inspector general found that the controversial 2025 data-sharing agreement crafted between ICE and the Treasury, which allowed ICE to submit names and addresses of immigrants inside the U.S. illegally to the IRS for cross-verification against tax records, resulted in inconsistent formatting in ICE’s data and the IRS’ matching criteria which led to errors.

The deal led the then-acting commissioner of the IRS to resign.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/treasury-irs-ice-data-immigration-enforcement-7164b43edee2c5220f4ab346c228f538