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 with 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.
On March 26, 2025, we filed an amended complaint adding Somos Un Pueblo Unidos and Inclusive Action for the City as plaintiffs and adding the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons as defendants. The amended complaint addresses new reporting that the IRS and immigration authorities are close to a deal that would enable the sharing of confidential taxpayer information for purposes of locating individuals for immigration enforcement. Then on March 31, 2025, we filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent the IRS from sharing taxpayer information with DHS and ICE. In May 2025, the court denied the request for a preliminary injunction. The court held that IRS likely could lawfully share taxpayer address information with ICE solely to support a criminal investigation. The court indicated that sharing information for civil enforcement purposes would not be permissible.