根据一份新的法庭文件，美国国税局（IRS）与国土安全部（DHS）达成了一项有争议的协议，以共享移民数据来识别非法居留人员，在此过程中，国税局不当披露了数千人的机密纳税人信息。
财政部、美国国税局和国土安全部去年春天敲定了一项协议，允许将纳税人数据与移民管理部门共享，以帮助他们找到非法移民。
这项协议导致国税局高层官员辞职，协议授权美国移民海关执法局（ICE）向国税局提交非法移民的姓名和地址，以便与税务记录进行交叉核实。
美国国税局首席风险与控制官多蒂·罗莫（Dottie Romo）在周三提交的声明中表示，美国移民海关执法局请求了128万个姓名，其中国税局核实了约4.7万人，这些信息随后被披露给了移民执法机构。
联邦法官第二次阻止国税局向ICE共享地址信息
国税局向ICE额外提供了不到5%的上述名单的地址信息，这可能违反了旨在保护纳税人数据的隐私规定。
税务征收机构表示，它最近发现了这一错误，并正在与其他联邦机构合作解决此事。
罗莫称，财政部上月已将这一错误通知国土安全部，并要求其协助“根据联邦法律迅速采取措施纠正此事”，其中包括“对国税局根据不完整或不充分的地址信息提供给ICE的任何数据进行适当处置”。
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去年美国国税局与国土安全部达成的协议引发了针对特朗普政府的诉讼，并打破了国税局长期以来的政策——该政策曾向移民保证其数据安全，从而鼓励移民依法纳税，即使他们没有合法居留身份。
协议签署后不久，几个移民权利团体就代表相关人员起诉了财政部长斯科特·贝森特和国土安全部部长克里斯蒂·诺姆。
上周，一名联邦法官下令国税局停止向ICE披露居住地址，这是第二项阻止国税局与国土安全部协议的裁决。
去年11月，另一名联邦法官阻止了国税局与国土安全部共享信息，称国税局在夏季非法传播了一些移民的税务数据，违反了纳税人保密法。
维权组织对纳税人记录可能被非法披露表示担忧，认为这可能被恶意利用来针对美国公民并侵犯其隐私。
“一旦纳税人数据向移民执法部门开放，错误就不可避免，而后果将由无辜者承担，”民主与技术中心政策顾问汤姆·鲍曼（Tom Bowman）向美联社表示。“数千份机密记录的披露不幸地恰恰说明了为什么严格的法律防火墙一直存在——直到现在——并被视为重要的保护措施。”
美联社对本报道有贡献。
The Internal Revenue Service improperly disclosed the confidential taxpayer information of thousands of people with the Department of Homeland Security as part of the agencies’ controversial agreement to share immigrant data to help identify those living in the country illegally, according to a new court filing.
The Treasury Department, the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security finalized a deal last spring to allow taxpayer data to be shared with immigration authorities to help them find illegal immigrants.
The agreement, which led to the resignations of top IRS officials, authorized Immigration and Customs Enforcement to submit names and addresses of illegal immigrants to the IRS for cross-verification against tax records.
In a declaration filed Wednesday, IRS Chief Risk and Control Officer Dottie Romo said the IRS was able to verify roughly 47,000 of the 1.28 million names ICE requested that were then disclosed to the immigration enforcement agency.
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The IRS gave ICE additional address information for under 5% of those names, potentially violating privacy rules created to protect taxpayer data.
The tax-collecting agency said it recently discovered the mistake and is working with other federal agencies to resolve the matter.
Romo said the Treasury notified DHS last month of the error and asked for its assistance in “promptly taking steps to remediate the matter consistent with federal law,” which includes “appropriate disposal of any data provided to ICE by IRS based on incomplete or insufficient address information.”
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The agreement last year between the IRS and DHS sparked litigation against the Trump administration and broke a longstanding IRS policy that encouraged immigrants to pay taxes even if they are not in the U.S. legally by assuring them that their data was safe.
A lawsuit was filed against Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on behalf of several immigrant rights groups shortly after the agreement was signed.
Last week, a federal judge ordered the IRS to stop disclosing residential addresses to ICE, marking the second ruling blocking the IRS-DHS agreement.
In November, a different federal judge blocked the IRS from sharing information with DHS, saying the IRS illegally disseminated the tax data of some migrants over the summer, violating a taxpayer confidentiality law.
Advocate groups expressed concern that the potential unlawful release of taxpayer records could be used to maliciously target U.S. citizens and violate their privacy.
“Once taxpayer data is opened to immigration enforcement, mistakes are inevitable and the consequences fall on innocent people,” Tom Bowman, policy counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology, told The Associated Press. “The disclosure of thousands of confidential records unfortunately shows precisely why strict legal firewalls exist and have — until now — been treated as an important guardrail.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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