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This week, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (TX-16) was part of a group of 93 Congressional Democrats who filed an amicus brief Monday night in the case of Centro de Trabajadores Unidos vs. Bessent, calling on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to block an unprecedented agreement between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that allows immigration enforcement agents access to millions of taxpayers' confidential IRS records.

The Democrats submitted policy arguments demonstrating that this agreement contravenes Congress’s clear intent to protect taxpayer privacy and encourage all individuals present in the U.S. to pay taxes.  The brief demonstrates that the harms of sharing taxpayer data far outweigh ICE’s interest in the information. 

The brief reinforces Congress’s long-standing, bipartisan intent to maintain a strict firewall between tax administration and immigration enforcement. It further explains how the District Court’s misinterpretation of 26 U.S.C. § 6103(i)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code gives the IRS greater leeway than is permitted by the statute to share taxpayer address information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It also emphasizes the importance of the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) program and taxpayer privacy protections under 26 U.S.C. § 6103 that enable individuals who are ineligible for Social Security Numbers to comply with federal tax law. It argues that the agreement stands to undermine both tax revenue and taxpayer faith in the confidentiality of their tax data.

In 2022 alone, ITIN filers paid $59.4 billion in federal income taxes, plus billions more to Social Security and Medicare despite being ineligible to receive those benefits.

See the full brief filed HERE.