ICE Appears to Be Buying Immigrants' Tax Identifiers from a Data Broker

ICE appears to be purchasing records containing immigrants' tax identification numbers (ITINs) from a data broker in a nearly $10 million contract, potentially circumventing a court order that previously banned the agency from obtaining such information directly from the IRS. Senator Ron Wyden claims this arrangement represents an attempt to bypass both taxpayer privacy laws and judicial restrictions to support deportation efforts. A federal court had previously struck down an IRS-Homeland Security agreement to share ITINs and personal information, making this private data broker purchase potentially an illegal workaround.