Trump dealt another court blow as ICE scheme to mine IRS data blocked

The Trump administration was dealt another court blow Thursday as a federal judge in Massachusetts temporarily blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security from using taxpayer address information obtained from the IRS.

The ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by several community organizations challenging data‑sharing agreements that allowed ICE to request and receive taxpayer addresses for immigration enforcement purposes, according to court documents obtained by Politico's Kyle Cheney.

The court found that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claim that the arrangements violated strict confidentiality protections, which limit when and how the IRS may disclose “return information,” including names, addresses, and taxpayer identification numbers. Judge Indira Talwani emphasized that Congress designed the statute “to protect the privacy of tax return information and to regulate in minute detail the disclosure of this material.”

The opinion noted that ICE sought addresses for millions of people, including hundreds of thousands under final removal orders, relying on a provision intended for non‑tax criminal investigation. The court said the statute requires disclosures to be used “solely for” such investigations and only by officers “personally and directly engaged” in them — conditions the judge found were not met.

As a result, ICE and DHS are temporarily barred from “inspecting, viewing, using, copying, distributing, relying on, or otherwise acting upon” any IRS‑provided return information while the case proceeds.