Fox News: DHS and IRS Make Deal to Locate Unauthorized Immigrants

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reached a deal allowing ICE access to taxpayer data, including the addresses of unauthorized immigrants. 

The Details: The Washington Post (Lean Left bias) reported that the DHS requested help locating 7 million unauthorized immigrants. Fox News (Right) ran an exclusive on the finalized deal, saying, “The Trump administration filed a memorandum of understanding [MOU] late Monday with a court to create guardrails and a process for ICE requests to the IRS to further investigations of criminal illegal immigrants who have failed or refuse to leave the United States 90 days after a judge has issued a final order of removal.” The Post added that “IRS officials were aghast” and “It would be highly unusual, and perhaps illegal, the people said, to use tax data to enact criminal penalties. IRS executives told Homeland Security officials that their request probably violates the narrow criminal investigation exemptions.”

Criminal Investigation Exemptions: Some IRS officials argued that criminal exemptions are meant for criminal investigations, not for unauthorized immigration enforcement, a civil offense. The MOU argues that the privacy of law-abiding taxpayers will still be protected while the IRS assists law enforcement, which is their obligation according to the exemption, adding that the immigrants were given due process when they overstayed a judge's 90-day removal order.

How The Media Covered It: Fox referred to “illegal immigrants,” while the Post called them “undocumented.” Fox did not mention concerns about the MOU until the second to last paragraph of its article, while the Post focused on the concerns, not expanding on the administration's perspective. 

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