February 26,2026

Wyden Statement on Judge’s Ruling that IRS-ICE Data Sharing Violated Taxpayer Privacy Laws

Washington, D.C. — Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today issued the following statement on a district judge’s ruling that the data sharing system between IRS and ICE led to the Trump administration violating taxpayer privacy laws in nearly 43,000 cases:

“From the outset it was obvious the Trump administration’s scheme to leak IRS data to its ICE deportation machine would violate the law. The system Scott Bessent, Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem cooked up to hand taxpayer data over to ICE is flawed and dangerous for a lot of reasons, but the most alarming is the threat of misidentification. There’s a strong likelihood this system has made mistakes, misidentified taxpayers, and sent ICE to hunt down innocent people who are now sitting in concentration camps or worse. The Treasury Department and the Department of Homeland Security must revoke the data sharing agreement immediately. 

“It’s absurd that Trump is suing the IRS and Treasury for $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns, but his own administration has now racked up almost 43,000 criminal violations of the same taxpayer privacy laws. The corruption and hypocrisy are out of control.

“Everybody who’s had their hands on the IRS-ICE data sharing agreement and the illegal transmission of this taxpayer data ought to save their records and be ready for the criminal investigations and lawsuits headed their way sooner or later.”

###