IRS sharing info with ICE would put illegal immigrants between 'rock and a hard place': expert

"It is going to discourage those taxpayers from even filing, so it really does put them between a rock and a hard place," Adam Brewer, a federal tax expert who works for AB Tax Law, told Fox News Digital. 

But some longtime IRS employees have expressed concerns about the deal, arguing that the tax agency has long assured the safeguarding of records in exchange for illegal immigrants filing tax returns, something they are required to do by law even though they are not in the country legally.

The draft agreement between the IRS and ICE would authorize verification "subject to criminal investigation" for violating immigration law, stretching the definition of a narrow IRS privacy exemption that allows the use of taxpayer data in the case of criminal investigations.

According to Brewer, stretching the definition of criminal investigations to those who entered the country illegally would be an "unprecedented" step for the IRS.

"For the IRS to get involved in criminal investigations, that's not uncommon," Brewer said. "They have done a lot of information sharing, historically, with DEA to crack down on drug proceeds, those types of things. I guess the way I'm looking at it is, if illegal immigration itself is the crime, if you look at it through that scope, then yes, it's pretty unprecedented."

Brewer believes that the agreement could also damage the credibility of the IRS, which has built trust by strictly adhering to privacy regulations.

"That would be true of any government agency if they had said, 'Hey, the DMV is going to start turning over your address to ICE.' You're going to get less people who register their vehicles or who renew their driver's license. That's just the reality," Brewer said.

"The IRS knows and ICE knows that these tax returns are required, and now they've really put a big disincentive in front of taxpayers from filing," Brewer said.

But Brewer also acknowledged that in some cases the information the IRS provides could prove to be a critical missing link for immigration authorities, pointing out that the IRS has long assisted other law enforcement agencies on other criminal matters.