The newly elected governor of New Jersey is threatening to refuse to send federal taxes to the Trump administration. In an interview with comedian Jon Stewart, former Rep. Mikie Sherill mentioned that she had frequently contemplated withholding tax dollars and ultimately decided it is a “fantastic idea.” “If they’re not gonna run the programs, then what are we paying them for?” she said. “It’s like, you know, you’re paying us for a service and they’re not delivering. So let’s stop paying for it.”
California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom has also suggested the possibility of withholding tax funds, but ultimately, it proved to be an idle threat. “We’re assessing it, we have looked into it, and Finance is looking across the spectrum of options,” he said in an interview with Politico in June. “But it’s limited, because most of that distribution and transfer comes from individual taxpayers,” he continued.
A federal judge, meanwhile, ruled Friday that the IRS likely broke the law when it agreed to share confidential taxpayer information with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and she ordered the practice to halt immediately. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee serving on the federal district court in Washington, D.C., said the agreement amounted to “unlawful conduct” that violated both procedural rules and federal tax law, The Washington Times reported. “Plaintiffs have shown that the IRS’s implementation of the Address-Sharing Policy was arbitrary and capricious because the IRS failed to recognize that it was departing from its prior policy of strict confidentiality, failed to consider the reliance interests that were engendered by its prior policy of strict confidentiality, and failed to provide a reasoned explanation for the new policy,” she wrote.
ICE sought access to IRS data to help locate illegal immigrants who were targets of enforcement operations. Documents revealed in the case show the agency initially requested information on more than 7 million IRS taxpayers. That request was later narrowed to 1.28 million “immigrant taxpayers,” the judge said. At least 47,000 records were ultimately provided.
The IRS denied ICE’s original request but agreed to cooperate after the agency reduced its scope to the 1.28 million people and claimed they were all under investigation for the criminal offense of remaining in the U.S. more than 90 days after being ordered deported. Federal law allows the IRS to share certain information for criminal investigations under limited exceptions. Kollar-Kotelly said ICE’s claim was questionable, noting that the agency represented that one individual was “personally and directly engaged” in all 1.28 million investigations. She said the IRS never offered a “reasoned explanation” for approving the new policy, which she ruled violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
The lawsuit was filed by the Center for Taxpayer Rights, which argued that some of its members’ confidential information may have been given to ICE. The judge agreed the center likely suffered harm and noted a decline in individuals seeking free tax assistance, giving the organization standing to sue. It is the most recent in a long line of terrible decisions from activist judges. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings, a Biden appointee, ruled Wednesday in favor of attorneys from the National Immigrant Justice Center and the American Civil Liberties Union, who argued that more than 3,000 people had been arrested between June and October during “Operation Midway Blitz.” Under the order, 615 detainees must be granted bond by noon on November 21. The ruling applies to individuals not subject to mandatory detention and who are not considered significant security threats, the report said.
