OKPOLICY.ORG
Contrary to popular rhetoric, undocumented immigrants pay billions of dollars in federal, state, and local taxes. Nearly three decades ago, the Internal Revenue Service created the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number so individuals ineligible for a Social Security Number could comply with U.S. tax law. This system was built on trust — immigrants were told their personal information would remain protected. Now, the Trump administration is moving to weaponize that trust by using the IRS to target immigrants who followed the law, believing the agency would keep its word — not hand over sensitive information for political theater.
For many immigrants, paying taxes is more than a legal responsibility — it is a way to demonstrate “good moral character” in the hope that it will help them adjust their immigration status should Congress ever create a pathway to citizenship for the millions currently excluded from the scarce existing pathways. The IRS itself has for years encouraged tax filing by promising immigrants their information would not be used for deportation. That promise has now been broken in an unprecedented breach of trust, prompting top IRS officials to resign in protest over the agency’s agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to share taxpayer data for immigration enforcement.
In Oklahoma, more than 30,000 ITIN filers and immigrants pay a combined $227 million in state and local taxes annually — tax revenue that could single-handedly cover last year’s CareerTech funding. Federal law — specifically 26 U.S. Code § 6103 — protects all taxpayers’ information from being weaponized and used to target specific groups or political opponents. Sharing ITIN information obtained solely through tax compliance betrays a commitment the U.S. government made to millions. It will strike fear into immigrant communities and suppress tax compliance as immigrants are forced to weigh personal safety against legal responsibility. Over the next decade, this could cost the United States up to $313 billion in lost revenue — money that funds Social Security and Medicare, programs most undocumented immigrants will never be able to access.
This rollback punishes those who do everything right — who follow the law, contribute billions to our economy, and support our social safety net. The government cannot claim carte blanche to violate people’s rights, persecute families, and punish immigrants simply because of their immigration status. Immigrants trusted that filing their taxes to give back to our communities would show good moral character, not put them at risk of being torn from their families. The IRS-ICE deal flies in the face of long-standing federal laws meant to protect taxpayer confidentiality from political misuse, betraying not just families but the very principles of fairness and privacy our laws are meant to uphold.
