Daniel Bush

ALT Federal immigration officials are seeking to locate up to 7 million people suspected of being in the United States unlawfully by accessing confidential tax data at the Internal Revenue Service, according to six people familiar with the request, a dramatic escalation in how the Trump administration aims to use the tax system to detain and deport immigrants. Officials from the Department of Homeland Security had previously sought the IRS’s help in finding 700,000 people who are subject to final removal orders, and they had asked the IRS to use closely guarded taxpayer data systems to provide names and addresses. The two agencies have still not reached an agreement on how much data or how the IRS would share it. But immigration enforcement officials on Thursday increased the volume of their request, according to the people familiar with it, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of professional reprisal. DHS officials initially said they would send preliminary queries...