The IRS can now share some undocumented immigrants’ tax records with immigration enforcement — a policy shift raising concerns in immigrant communities.
The IRS is now allowed to share the personal tax information of undocumented immigrants who are under criminal investigation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — including those who already have deportation orders.
The policy change comes as millions of Americans — including undocumented immigrants — face the tax filing deadline on Tuesday.
About 11 million undocumented people are living in the U.S., and more than 160,000 removal orders were issued in the first two months of this year.
Some undocumented immigrants are now fearful, but UpMortgage's William Caballero says it's important to continue filing.
“I’m still advising clients to do the right thing because today they might be undocumented, but they might want to fix their immigration status later on," Caballero said. "Something that immigration is going to be looking at is to see if you did the right thing while you were here.”
Undocumented immigrants paid more than $96 billion in 2022 in federal, state and local taxes, with over $690 million of that going to state and local taxes in North Carolina.
