Meng, Espaillat and Clarke Lead 51 Members of Congress in Challenging IRS Citizenship Question

Washington, D.C. — Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) Chair Rep. Grace Meng (NY-06), Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) Chair Rep. Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), and Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chair Rep. Yvette Clarke (NY-09) led 51 Members of Congress in a letter to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) opposing a proposal to include a citizenship question on federal tax filing forms.

At a time when American families are struggling with the rising cost of groceries, energy, housing, health care, and other essentials, the administration's priorities are misplaced and out of touch. Rather than addressing the economic pressures facing working families, this proposal threatens to undermine taxpayer confidence, discourage tax compliance, and jeopardize billions in tax revenue.

The members questioned the need for a citizenship question – a question that has never been required in tax filing before – and warned that such an entry could undermine the IRS's core mission of tax administration.

"The citizenship question lacks any tax purpose, and the IRS has failed to offer any rationale for it. Due to the lack of nexus to tax liability, it is outside the IRS’s authority. It would also be counter to the IRS’s mission, as it would discourage filing by noncitizen taxpayers, including Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) filers, who owe federal taxes under the Internal Revenue Code (the Code)," wrote the lawmakers.

The stakes are significant. Undocumented immigrants account for nearly $100 billion in annual tax revenue at the federal, state, and local levels. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), undocumented taxpayers paid $96.7 billion in taxes in 2022, including $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes, $6.4 billion in Medicare taxes, and $1.8 billion in unemployment insurance taxes.

Congress explicitly empowered the IRS to collect those taxes and to facilitate their payment. Changing the nature of the IRS would discourage ITIN filers from paying taxes, creating a shortfall and increasing enforcement costs.

In their letter, the lawmakers emphasized Congress's intent in empowering the IRS solely as a tax administration entity – not an arm of immigration enforcement. Federal courts have also reinforced the legal protections governing taxpayer confidentiality, finding that the IRS's challenged efforts to share confidential taxpayer information with immigration enforcement failed to comply with statutory requirements.

Taxpayer confidentiality is essential to the IRS's mission. Collecting taxpayer immigration status is not part of that mission. 

"Congress requires every person with income above the filing threshold to file a return, under a promise of confidentiality that Congress wrote into law and the IRS repeated for thirty years. The tax return is not a citizenship registry. We ask the IRS to remove the citizenship question from the 2026 Form 1040 and to omit it from the collection submitted to [the Office of Management and Budget]," wrote the lawmakers.

You can read the original letter HERE.