There’s a storm brewing at the IRS that’s just cost Commissioner Billy Long his job, according to Breitbart.
In a nutshell, Long was ousted after a heated clash between the IRS and the White House over whether taxpayer data should be used to track down roughly 40,000 individuals suspected of being in the U.S. without authorization.
Let’s rewind to the start of this saga, where President Donald Trump appointed Billy Long to head the IRS in December 2024.
From day one, Long was stepping into a role that’s always been a tightrope walk between fiscal responsibility and political pressure.
Fast forward to April, when the Treasury Department and DHS inked a partnership deal allowing ICE agents to locate unauthorized migrants living in the U.S. This wasn’t just a handshake—it set the stage for some serious boundary-pushing on how far tax data could be stretched.
Then, on a recent Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem doubled down with a memorandum greenlighting ICE to request tax information specifically for deportation purposes.
Under this new agreement, either Noem or ICE Director Todd Lyons could ask the IRS for details on individuals ordered to leave the country. Talk about opening a can of worms—taxpayer privacy just took a backseat.
The plot thickened when DHS handed the IRS a list of about 40,000 names thought to be unauthorized migrants, requesting address verification using confidential taxpayer records.
“Two people familiar with the situation” told the Washington Post that DHS officials believed these folks were in the U.S. without proper documentation. Well, belief is one thing, but using sacred tax data for a manhunt is a whole other ballgame that smells of overreach.
By Friday, the IRS reported it could verify less than 3 percent of the names provided by immigration enforcement. Most of those matches came from individuals with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), a special ID used by many immigrants, often undocumented, for tax filings.
Here’s a kicker worth noting: undocumented immigrants contribute tens of billions in taxes annually, often through these ITINs. So, while some cheer the push to track folks down, others might argue the IRS is biting the hand that feeds it a hefty chunk of revenue.
Back to the drama, “two people familiar with the situation” also told the Washington Post that the IRS was tasked to “use confidential taxpayer data” for address checks. Let’s be real—turning tax records into a GPS for deportation feels like a slippery slope away from the IRS’s core mission of, you know, taxes.
Amid this mess, Billy Long reportedly drew a line in the sand, telling agency executives he wouldn’t release taxpayer info beyond the IRS’s existing agreement with DHS, according to sources speaking to the Washington Post. Now that’s a stand for principle over politics, but it didn’t win him any friends in high places.
Hours after this dispute boiled over, Long was shown the door, a move that’s raised eyebrows about just how much independence the IRS really has under current leadership. If you’re keeping score, standing up for taxpayer privacy just got a top official canned.
Now, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is temporarily steering the IRS ship, as multiple sources confirmed to NBC News.
One has to wonder if this interim role will mean more compliance with White House wishes or if Bessent will chart a different course.
This whole ordeal begs a bigger question: where’s the line between national security and personal privacy? Conservatives rightly prioritize border enforcement, but using tax data as a deportation tool risks alienating folks who trust the system enough to pay into it, authorized or not.
Critics of progressive overreach often point to government bloat, yet here’s a case where an expanded federal reach—into taxpayer files, no less—feels like a step too far, even for a MAGA-friendly agenda. It’s a rare moment where skepticism of big government aligns across the spectrum, though for different reasons.