This Tax Day, ICE is going after the very immigrants who fund Social Security
This Tax Day, while millions file their returns as usual, over 12 million people will do so at grave risk — not just to their finances, but to their safety. For the first time, the IRS and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are finalizing a questionably legal deal to exploit confidential taxpayer data, targeting to fill detention and deportation quotas. This move weaponizes tax compliance, betraying the trust of Californian families, businesses, and our economy.
As a formerly undocumented immigrant, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) beneficiary, one of the first undocumented Ph.D.s in the country, a lecturer of labor studies, and the Executive Director of Immigrants Rising, I’ve seen how our outdated immigration system shapes lives. Despite my immigration status, I’ve paid taxes for years — because I believe in contributing to the country I call home, and understood paying taxes to be an important part of being able to adjust my immigration status. This IRS-DHS collaboration isn’t just cruel, it’s economically self-defeating.
I tell my students all the time that taxes are important. Taxes fund parks, roads, and social programs. They’re how we redistribute wealth to families in need. But tax power hinges on trust. Without privacy protections, people won’t pay their fair share. Until now, the IRS has long safeguarded taxpayer data to ensure compliance. By threatening to share immigrants’ personal information with the express purpose of detention and deportation, the administration isn’t just breaking that trust — it’s undermining the very taxation system that helps our communities thrive.
In California, immigrant workers make up nearly one-third of the labor force, and of those workers are undocumented. In addition, more than 40% of immigrants in California are entrepreneurs, generating in business income in 2022.
Nationwide, undocumented workers paid in federal, state, and local taxes in 2023 via Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs). In 2023 alone, undocumented professionals contributed in state taxes. Undocumented immigrant business owners employ U.S. citizens, stimulate growth, and pay into Social Security and Medicare — benefits they’ll never be able to claim themselves, but effectively subsidize for the country. Undocumented people do this by paying into the Social Security Earnings Suspense File (ESF), a database that tracks wages and payroll taxes that cannot be matched to a Social Security Number (SSN). While they are not eligible for these benefits, undocumented immigrants have created a trillion-dollar subsidy to our social security program. Deporting them won’t “protect” the economy or social safety nets, it will decimate them.
Meanwhile, the administration is expanding enforcement to TPS holders, students, and parolees. Mass deportations would cost — far outweighing any imagined savings. With nearly 90% of undocumented workers in their prime working years, losing them would deepen labor shortages and strain social safety nets. Immigrants, regardless of their status, are net contributors, and losing them deepens labor shortages and strains our social safety nets.
Behind these numbers are families. has an ITIN-holding parent. For mixed-status households, filing taxes now risks losing a breadwinner and loved one to deportation. These aren’t just statistics. They are caregivers, breadwinners, neighbors, and friends. Deporting them won’t protect our economy — it will rip apart the very communities that keep it running. Punishing those who pay taxes while demanding they “follow the rules” is a vicious, unwinnable circle.
Sharing tax data without approval endangers every taxpayer’s privacy. Congress must stop this breach of trust. Tax Day should celebrate shared responsibility — not weaponize compliance. We need immigration reform, not raids disguised as audits.
