Trump Wasn’t Joking: Some IRS Workers To Help With Deportation, Report Says

There was apparently some truth to President Donald Trump’s quip last month about sending Internal Revenue Service (IRS) workers to the southern U.S. border to help with deportation efforts.

Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to deputize some law-enforcement workers, including criminal investigators from the IRS, to help with immigration efforts, according to documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal.

IRS criminal investigators often carry firearms and can make arrests. They currently investigate tax return preparer fraud, bankruptcy fraud, and identity theft schemes, among other crimes, according to the IRS website.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem asked Bessent to provide agents who would help investigate financial flows involving human-trafficking networks and businesses that employ illegal immigrants in a memo dated February 7, the Journal reported. The agents could help arrest, detain, and transport criminal illegals.

Last month, Trump appeared to joke that new IRS agents could be sent to help with deportation efforts at the border. In 2021, former President Joe Biden approved the hiring of nearly 87,000 IRS full-time employees by 2031.

“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,” Trump told supporters gathered at the Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

“I think we’re going to move them to the border where they are allowed to carry guns,” he added. “You know, they’re so strong on guns. But these people are allowed to carry guns. So we will probably move them to the border.”

Trump suggests sending IRS agents to the border https://t.co/ljTsu78o1I pic.twitter.com/1HyeL9HCr7

— New York Post (@nypost) January 26, 2025

Trump promised Americans on the campaign trail that he would work to deport illegal immigrants, starting with those who’ve committed crimes in addition to illegally crossing the U.S. border.

The administration has moved quickly on that promise. During the first 18 days of Trump’s second presidential term, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) racked up 11,000 illegal immigrant arrests, The Daily Wire reported.

The administration has also shut down the controversial Biden-era CBP One app, and DHS has moved to repeal limits on ICE agents, allowing the agents to more freely find and detain illegals.