Immigration Article of the Day: The IRS and ICE Memorandum of Understanding of April 2025 by Marianna Bezhanyan

The IRS and ICE Memorandum of Understanding of April 2025 by Marianna Bezhanyan

Abstract
Since the enactment of the Tax Reform Act of 1976, 26 U.S.C. § 6103 has established tax return confidentiality as the default rule of federal tax administration, which permits disclosure only through narrowly defined statutory exceptions. Congress designed this “firewall” by understanding that voluntary compliance depends on credible assurances of confidentiality. The April 7, 2025, Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) places that framework under strain. The IRS-ICE MOU relies on § 6103(i)(2), which authorizes limited disclosures for non-tax criminal investigations, to permit the sharing of taxpayer address information for immigration enforcement purposes. Although the agreement is formally limited to individualized requests tied to criminal investigations, its implementation has prompted significant statutory and institutional concerns. Litigation has revealed that tens of thousands of addresses were disclosed pursuant to the IRS-ICE MOU and that a portion of those disclosures failed to satisfy statutory requirements. This Article argues that the IRS ICE MOU exceeds the scope of § 6103(i)(2), undermines the credibility of the confidentiality regime that supports voluntary tax compliance, and signals a broader shift toward expanded executive authority and increased interagency centralization without legislative authorization. Whether ultimately sustained or invalidated, the controversy surrounding the IRS-ICE MOU underscores the importance of statutory firewalls in maintaining institutional boundaries and public trust.