Centro de Trabajadores Unidos v. Bessent

Undocumented workers are legally required to pay federal taxes on their income. To file their tax returns, the IRS issues individual taxpayer identification numbers (ITIN) to undocumented workers, who are not eligible for social security numbers. These workers submit personal data to the IRS to obtain an ITIN and to file income taxes.

Under the Internal Revenue Code, tax return information for all taxpayers must be kept confidential and can only be disclosed as authorized by statute. No statute authorizes disclosure of tax information for purposes of immigration enforcement. Nonetheless, the Trump administration has signaled that it would like the IRS to share taxpayer information with immigration authorities so that they could locate individuals subject to removal.

Public Citizen, co-counseling Alan Morrison, and Raise the Floor Alliance, filed a lawsuit on behalf of Centro de Trabajadores Unidos and Immigrant Solidarity Dupage, two immigrant worker organizations, against the IRS seeking to prevent the IRS from engaging in the unauthorized disclosure of taxpayer information for purposes of immigration enforcement. On March 14, we filed a motion for a temporary restraining order. The court denied that motion after the IRS represented that information had not yet been released.