After Democrats supersized the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by billions of more dollars to target working Americans under President Joe Biden, the Trump administration has moved to tap into that manpower for an entirely different purpose.
In a bid to draw additional manpower to support its sprawling crackdown on illegal immigrants, a number of IRS officials have been deputized with immigration enforcement authority, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation Monday. DHS confirmation follows a memo by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem requesting the Treasury Department to deputize some law enforcement employees, including IRS criminal investigators, with assisting in immigration enforcement matters.
“It is DHS’s understanding that the Department of Treasury has qualified law enforcement personnel available to assist with immigration enforcement, especially in light of recent increases to the Internal Revenue Service’s work force and budget,” Noem said in the memo, which was first obtained by the Wall Street Journal.
Noem’s memo requested Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent provide agents that could help investigate the financial transactions of human-trafficking organizations and businesses that employ illegal migrants not authorized to work in the United States. Agents provided by Bessent could help apprehend, transport and detain wanted illegal migrants or others involved in such unlawful transactions.
The move to tap into IRS’s law enforcement pool follows passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 by Congress, which at the time was controlled by the Democratic Party. That package provided $80 billion in additional funding to the IRS, empowering the agency with additional resources and thousands of more IRS agents to more closely monitor working Americans.
The congressional vote was met with controversy as the IRS is not well liked by the American public. A Pew Research survey released in August 2024 found that the IRS was the most disliked agency in the country, with 50% of respondents expressing an unfavorable view of the agency and only 38% expressing a positive view.
President Donald Trump had long derided the legislation and previously teased that he would deploy the newly-hired IRS agents to the U.S.-Mexico border. However, the Republican president may have found use for them under the new DHS request.
Unlike the IRS’s revenue agents and officers who work in auditing and collections, the agency’s criminal investigators are law enforcement officers who carry firearms and have the authority to make arrests.
IRS officials are able to provide special expertise in the fight against mass illegal immigration and the corresponding crime that comes with it. Organized crime syndicates have made billions taking advantage of the border crisis that sparked under the Biden administration, with cartels making roughly $14 million every single day smuggling migrants, illicit drugs and other contraband into the U.S.
Trump came into office with a pledge to conduct the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. His administration has already overseen a rapid uptick in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests and numerous executive orders and internal directives aimed at ushering in a hardline enforcement agenda.
The DHS request to the Treasury Department follows previous moves to empower other federal agents with immigration authority. A DHS directive released in January grants agents working within the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Federal Bureau of Prisons with many of the same powers of ICE agents.
Trump has tapped former Missouri GOP Rep. Billy Long to lead the IRS, but his nomination has not yet been confirmed by the Senate.
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