It’s not uncommon for immigration opponents on the right to argue that undocumented immigrants don’t pay taxes in the United States. Those claims have long been false, and they looked a little worse when the Department of Homeland Security asked the IRS to share information filed by undocumented taxpayers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Complicating matters, the IRS ultimately agreed to share the sensitive information.
It’s an unprecedented move. Indeed, officials have long guarded sensitive taxpayer information with great care, even shielding the information from other agencies. But the Trump administration is determined to intensify its mass deportation policy, and so the Internal Revenue Service succumbed to pressure.
As The Associated Press reported, developments generated an important resignation.
The acting commissioner of the IRS is resigning over a deal to share immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the purpose of identifying and deporting people illegally in the U.S., according to two people familiar with the decision. Melanie Krause, who had served as acting head since February, will step down over the new data-sharing document signed Monday by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The agreement will allow ICE to submit names and addresses of immigrants inside the U.S. illegally to the IRS for cross-verification against tax records.
If you’re thinking that you’ve seen a lot of headlines lately about IRS commissioners stepping down, it’s not your imagination.
In January, then-IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, who was nominated by Joe Biden, resigned on Inauguration Day as Donald Trump prepared to replace him. Werfel was followed by Doug O’Donnell, a longtime IRS official, who stepped down a month later.
O’Donnell was followed by Krause, who resigned in the wake of the IRS-DHS deal.








