IRS Declaration Says It May Have Released Taxpayer Addresses to ICE on Deficient Requests; the Court Reads It as an Admission of Section 6103 Violations

The Romo declaration opens its explanation: “I make this declaration to modify certain prior statements made by Defendants in this case based on information obtained by Defendants subsequent to those statements.” It goes on to say the IRS “may have supplied last known addresses to ICE” in cases where the address field ICE supplied was incomplete or insufficiently populated.

The background is a memorandum of understanding signed on April 7, 2025 by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, under which ICE asked the IRS for last known addresses of approximately 1.28 million individuals it had identified. The IRS rejected some requests as not meeting the MOU’s specifications and, on August 7, 2025, disclosed last known addresses for 47,289 (3.7%) of the requests. Romo wrote that the IRS estimates “less than 5% of the 47,289 individuals” had potentially incomplete or potentially insufficient address information from ICE; examples included fields reading “Failed to Provide” or “Unknown Address,” and addresses naming jails or detention facilities without street numbers. Treasury notified DHS on January 23, 2026 and asked DHS to help prevent disclosure or dissemination of data based on deficient addresses and to ensure its disposal. DHS and ICE confirmed that “pending the resolution of a related injunction enjoining the MOU” they will not inspect, use or act on return information obtained under the MOU.

What the declaration says and what the court found

The declaration does not itself call the disclosures a violation; its words are “may have” and “potentially.” The district court wrote, on February 26, 2026, in an indicative ruling, that “Defendants admit that, on August 7, 2025, the IRS disclosed confidential taxpayer addresses to ICE in violation of Section 6103(i)(2).” That is the court’s reading of the declaration. The court’s count of violations, approximately 42,695 times, rests on a different defect: addresses disclosed through TIN Matching without confirming the address element of ICE’s request. It is not the under-5% figure.