(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Remember the 87,000 IRS agents the Biden administration wanted to hire to go after Americans? They’re now being reassigned to help deport illegal aliens instead.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced the shift on X, revealing she had requested the IRS to deputize agents to assist in arresting violent criminal illegal aliens across the country.
“Instead of having Biden’s 87,000 IRS agents take more money from Americans, I have requested that they help taxpayers SAVE money by helping ICE round up criminal illegal aliens for deportation,” Noem wrote.
Instead of having Biden’s 87,000 IRS agents take more money from Americans, I have requested that they help taxpayers SAVE money by helping ICE round up criminal illegal aliens for deportation. pic.twitter.com/odpMunmm3o
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) February 10, 2025
Within days of taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump granted agents within ATF, DEA and the U.S. Marshals the power to make immigration arrests and process deportation.
Since then, these federal agents have actively participated in ICE raids across cities with the largest numbers of illegal immigrants.
Noem visited ATF’s New York headquarters to thank and encourage agents engaged in the ongoing immigration enforcement efforts in the region.
ATF NY greatly appreciates @Sec_Noem’s visit and encouragement of all federal law enforcement partners assisting @dhsgov with their immigration enforcement efforts in NYC. @HSINewYork @DEANEWYORKDiv @CBPNewYorkCity @ERONewYork @NewYorkFBI pic.twitter.com/kkDuMcQUGd
— ATF New York (@ATFNewYork) January 28, 2025
Her request to deploy IRS agents in the operations signals a near whole-of-government approach to tackling the border crisis left behind by former President Joe Biden.
The IRS has long been despised by many Americans. A Pew Research 2024 poll ranked the IRS as one of the least popular federal agencies, with more than half of the public viewing it unfavorably.
In May 2021, Biden, under the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, approved the hiring of 87,000 new IRS employees by 2031, purportedly to replace retiring agents.
Hours after his swearing-in, Trump signed an executive order freezing such hiring.
“Upon issuance of the OMB plan, this memorandum shall expire for all executive departments and agencies, with the exception of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS),” Trump wrote, signaling that the freeze was permanent.
Trump had hinted at the deployment of IRS agents to the border on Jan. 25, saying at a rally: They hired, or tried to hire, 88,000 workers to go after you and we’re in the process of developing a plan to either terminate all of them, or maybe we’ll move them to the border.”
JUST IN: President Trump is working to deputize IRS agents to help ICE deport illegal immigrants.
I guess Trump wasn't kidding when he said he was going to send IRS agents to the border.
"It is DHS's understanding that the Department of the Treasury has qualified law… pic.twitter.com/65LAURoP3v
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 10, 2025
Republican lawmakers and other conservative personalities widely welcomed Trump’s hiring freeze.
Jason Smith, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, described it as an important first step “to helping middle-class Americans and small businesses living in fear of 87,000 new IRS agents targeting them with new audits and monitoring their personal transactions.”
Smith warned that Democrats had planned to “ramp up audits on Americans every year to squeeze as much revenue out of them as possible.”
He added, “A return to ‘historical audit levels’ as sought by Democrats means 600,000 more families making less than $75,000 would be hit with an IRS audit.”
