FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 26, 2025

Media Inquiries:

Inclusive Action, Partners Sue to Prevent IRS from Disclosing Taxpayer Data to ICE for President Trump’s Mass Deportation Agenda

LOS ANGELES – Today, Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization, Inclusive Action for the City (IAC), joined a lawsuit to prevent the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from unlawfully disclosing taxpayer information to immigration enforcement authorities. IAC joins co-plaintiffs Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, Immigrant Solidarity DuPage, and Somos Un Pueblo Unido – represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group, Alan Morrison, and Raise the Floor Alliance – in this lawsuit against U.S. Department of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the IRS, and Acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krauss; Department of Homeland Security, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency officials are on the precipice of entering into an agreement with the IRS that would upend decades of precedent and provide confidential taxpayer data to target undocumented workers as part of the administration’s harmful mass deportation agenda. These efforts would utilize information on tax records filed by workers with Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) – which have been used by undocumented Americans since the 1990s to file taxes and start businesses – to target people for immigration enforcement and possible removal. The lawsuit seeks a declaratory judgment from a federal court to prohibit the IRS from sharing this data with DHS or ICE – to safeguard immigrants and uphold the civil rights and data privacy of American workers.

Immigrants fuel the American economy through tremendous contributions as workers, entrepreneurs, and small business owners. In 2022 alone, undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes. As a certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and economic justice organization, IAC works with immigrant entrepreneurs every day, expanding access to capital through small business loan programs, and driving local and state policy advocacy to expand economic inclusion. ITIN serves as a foundation, not just for IAC’s programs and work but for the American economy as a whole. Compromising data security for workers who use ITINs – as the federal government is attempting – would cripple the economy.

“We’re taking a stand to protect the rights of our clients and community members, and safeguard their personal data from illegal disclosure,” said Rudy Espinoza, Chief Executive Officer at Inclusive Action, “We cannot sit idly by as the federal government weaponizes tools of economic inclusion and uses them to exclude and harm taxpayers who contribute so much to our communities. While the Administration seeks to upend our financial systems and destroy lives, we will fight with urgency to ensure immigrant workers and small business owners in L.A. and across America can continue to safely participate in the economy.”

“The tax laws guarantee privacy for all taxpayers, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status,” said Nandan Joshi, attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group and lead counsel in the case. “The administration’s desire to speed up their deportation agenda does not justify jettisoning decades of taxpayer protections.”

Inclusive Action for the City (IAC) is a nonprofit economic justice organization based in Los Angeles that is on mission is to serve underinvested communities and build thriving local economies by improving access to transformative capital, and advancing policy through collaborative research and community-driven advocacy. The organization was founded in 2008 and has been a certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) since 2020.