Politicos were stunned to hear that IRS Commissioner Billy Long had been fired after being on the job for just two months. It was soon reported that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had been appointed acting IRS commissioner, and that Long had accepted President Donald Trump’s offer to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Iceland.
Sources told The Washington Post that Long was ousted over his refusal to hand over taxpayer data on suspected illegal aliens. On Saturday, the Post reported:
The Department of Homeland Security sent the IRS a list Thursday of 40,000 names of people DHS officials thought were in the country illegally and asked the IRS to use confidential taxpayer data to verify their addresses, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.The Treasury Department, the parent agency of the IRS, and DHS agreed to an arrangement in April to facilitate such data sharing — over the objections of the tax service’s privacy lawyers.DHS officials have suggested they would eventually ask the IRS for help locating 7 million people.
According to the sources, the IRS informed DHS that “it was able to verify fewer than 3 percent of the names” on the list.
The names the agency could match were mainly the individuals for whom DHS provided an individual taxpayer identification number. An ITIN is an IRS-specific ID that immigrants often use in place of a Social Security number on a tax filing. Undocumented immigrants pay tens of billions of dollars in taxes each year, which the ITINs help facilitate.
Further, the sources alleged that the White House wanted to know if any of those taxpayers had “claimed the earned income tax credit.” The IRS refused to provide that information.
The sources claimed that Long had previously informed colleagues that he would not provide confidential taxpayer data except as allowed under the IRS’s April agreement with DHS.
After the Post published this story, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson issued a statement which read, “The Trump administration is working in lockstep to eliminate information silos and to prevent illegal aliens from taking advantage of benefits meant for hardworking American taxpayers. … Any absurd assertion other than everyone being aligned on the mission is simply false and totally fake news.”
DHS released a statement:
[The agreement with the IRS] outlines a process to ensure that sensitive taxpayer information is protected, while allowing law enforcement to effectively pursue criminal violations.After four years of Joe Biden flooding the nation with illegal aliens, these processes streamline pursuit of violent criminals, scrub these individuals from voter rolls, identify what public benefits these aliens are using at taxpayer expense, all while protecting American citizens’ safety and data.
I’m surprised Trump nominated Long for the position without resolving these details beforehand. Perhaps, given his six-term record as a dependable conservative in Congress, Trump felt it was unnecessary. Or maybe Long faced opposition from other top IRS officials.
The legacy media is making hay out of the fact that Long was the sixth person to lead the IRS this year. Danny Werfel, a Biden appointee, was fired as Commissioner after Trump took office. The acting commissioner who replaced him, alarmed by DOGE’s efforts to streamline the IRS and cut out the fraud, waste, and abuse, resigned. The next left after the IRS signed onto the data-sharing arrangement with DHS in April. Another lasted for two days due to “an internal conflict between Musk and Bessent.” His interim replacement stepped aside once Long was confirmed by the Senate.
Once again, permanent Washington is doing what it does best — standing in the way of what’s best for America. The Trump administration is working to deport those who entered the country illegally, yet the very bureaucrats who looked the other way during the Biden administration’s blatant refusal to enforce immigration law are now weaponizing every technicality to stop him. This episode is a textbook case of the swamp protecting itself, and it shows why purging these entrenched operatives from the federal payroll isn’t just necessary—it’s long overdue.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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